Help my Dad fight brain cancer

We urgently need your help to fund Wiktor's treatment for brain cancer - glioblastoma. Dendritic cell vaccine we're fundraising for is not available on NHS, despite being approved for manufacturing in UK.

Dad's story

"Half of us will get some form of cancer in our lifetime" - NHS tells us. But you never expect it to be you or someone in your family... and it's always a shock. Certainly when you're 53 years old.

We started our fight on the 14th of April 2020 just as the Coronavirus pandemic was taking over the world.

My father, Wiktor started to have headaches and some vision changes just before Easter 2020. He thought it was an eye infection, but by the time we got to pharmacy on Tuesday morning, his field of vision had started to reduce on the left side.

Pharmacy said it was too serious for them to help and suggested talking to his GP, who directed us to Specsavers for an eye health check. We were seen straight away and wonderful staff in the branch even stayed behind after closing to finish all the tests. The first hint at how serious this had become was when the Specsavers assistant was telling us that there's nothing wrong with my Dad's eyes, it's his brain. He quickly wrote a letter explaining his concerns and asked us to head to St George's Hospital A&E, promising he will also phone ahead to let them know we're coming.

3 hours later, my Dad had already had a CT and doctors came around to explain their suspicions - stroke. There was a shadow in the right occipital lobe which is responsible for the field of vision. Little did we know that 2 days later after getting admitted and having an MRI, the diagnosis would get even more grim - tumour.

Everything has moved so quickly since then - surgery a week later to remove as much of it as possible, coming back home after not seeing his family for nearly a week in such a difficult time, because we were already in a full blown pandemic so no visitors allowed in the hospital, and finally lab results...

Grade 4 Glioblastoma - average survival 12 - 15 months. Some people call it Terminator. Currently there's no cure. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet research funding is limited.

Treatment will buy us some time, hopefully one day a cure is found. First, 6 weeks of radiotherapy with chemotherapy at Guy's Cancer Centre in London Bridge, then 12 months of chemotherapy on it's own. We've managed to find a private GP in Scotland prescribing cannabis spray Sativex, which is known to have anti-cancer properties and work against Glioblastoma. Dad was doing great during each round of chemo, blood results always holding very well, each MRI (every 3 months) looking better and better. Yes, there was tiredness as expected but he managed to overcome it. Until a month ago...

His tiredness levels were increasing despite the fact he was off the chemo already. He developed left side weakness/inattention which prompted us to speak to his Consultant.

Dad had an MRI on the 5th of August and an appointment with Dr Al-Salihi a week later when we were told the tumour has progressed. A quick decision to start different chemo - Lomustine, but there's no guarantees.

This is where we need your help.

There is a treatment showing promising results, but not financed by any country's health service.

Cancer vaccine called DCVAX-L developed by American company Northwest Biotherapeutics.

It costs about £30000 for one dose to be manufactured and administered, money we don't have. He will need a total of 6 doses.

Every penny could put us closer to giving Dad extra months or even years.

Thank you very much in anticipation for all your help!!