Billingshurst woman raises awareness after husband's brain tumour mistaken for jet lag
Sue Bassett's husband Jason was diagnosed with glioblastoma just weeks from returning from family birthday celebrations abroad
A Billingshurst woman who's husband's brain tumour was mistaken for jet lag is raising awareness about easily overlooked symptoms.
Sue Bassett's husband Jason received a terminal cancer diagnosis just weeks after returning from a family holiday "confused" and "not himself".
The family put his initial headache and tiredness down to "picking up something on the plane" - but when his personality began to change, Sue knew it was time to call the GP:
"He's usually quite a bubbly, lively sort of personality and he seemed slightly subdued to me and I kind of had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, so we booked a GP appointment.
"Jason actually forgot about the GP appointment the next day, so I then thought 'something's really wrong here'".
An MRI scan would reveal Jason had glioblastoma - an aggressive brain cancer.
Having had brain surgery, and now receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy , Sue says she's noticed gaps in treatment options.
"What I didn't realise about brain tumours, is that the standard care of on the NHS at the moment has kind of remained the same for many years - I think it's about 30 years.
"This is the standard treatment, which hasn't changed, and I presume that this is around the lack of research."
She's now taking on a 200k in May challenge for Brain Tumour Research, in hopes to raise funds to find a cure.
"It's a little bit of walking with Jason when he can manage it.
"And I've got to whippets that are going to have a lot more walking than they used to, and I've purchased a treadmill for indoors.
"So when I'm here with Jason, I can plod away on that."
You can donate to Sue here.