Sam’s Brain Cancer Treatment

Hello, my name is Melissa and I’m fundraising for my 34 year old brother-in-law, Samuel Bravo-Hibberd, for the treatment of his recently diagnosed brain cancer.

He lives in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire with my sister Mauricee, and their three young children aged 13 and 2 year old boys, and their baby girl born mid July 2023 - just 8 weeks before the brain tumour was found.

My sister has started noticing personality and behavioural changes for over a year before his diagnosis which put a toll on their marriage and family. But never would we have thought, even in our wildest imagination, that this was due to a silently growing cancer in his brain.

There was no “physical” symptoms until 2 weeks after they gave birth to their youngest. It started with occasional headaches, then auras, and then some confusion. He was seen at their GP surgery in August and was diagnosed with migraine related to lack of sleep from having a newborn. He was sent home with migraine tablets.

My sister had a gut feeling that she couldn’t shift and asked the doctor to refer her husband for an MRI scan. This scan was not booked until the 21st of September.

Co-incidentally, their eldest son complained of neck pain and my sister noticed a lump at the back of his ear. On the 14th of September, she took him to the A&E. Sam was driving them at the time, with all three kids alongside. Her instinct made her sign in her husband at the ED reception at the same time.

Sam was assessed by the ED doctor, and as his bloods and physical assessment all came back normal, they were just going to send him home. My sister, already distraught, begged them for a CT scan.

Following the result, they were moved to a private room and was told to prepare themselves. A huge brain tumour was found on the left side of his brain. It’s so big that it is now pushing to the right side of his brain causing the new symptoms including difficulty finding words and reading, confusion, memory loss, motor weakness, and multiple seizures a day.

Their eldest son was consequently diagnosed with blood clots in his neck and a skull base deep infection. He spent one month on the paediatric ward and is still on treatment as of writing, with community children’s nurses visiting their home on a daily basis for antibiotics drip and blood thinners.

Sadly, it couldn’t be anymore different than my brother-in-law’s outcome - they were told that Sam’s brain tumour is inoperable and conventional treatment including radiotherapy and chemotherapy were not an option because of how aggressive the cancer is and how severe his decline was. He was given 8-12 weeks to live and was referred to palliative care.

My sister did not give up and sought for a second opinion privately. This led to Sam having 30-40% of the tumour being removed successfully. Sadly, this is still not enough to make him suitable for radio or chemotherapy as of writing. He was diagnosed with grade 4 glioma which is the most aggressive category of primary brain tumour. They are currently awaiting the extended biopsy results and tumour analysis to find out the exact type.

This is why I’m asking for your help: NHS treatment for brain cancer hasn’t changed much in decades. But UK private hospitals, and hospitals in other countries are now offering more advanced treatments like immunotherapy and Tumour Treating Fields (TTF) or Optune, to buy people like Sam more time to spend with my sister, nephews and niece.

There is good evidence that these alternative treatments do work with patients surviving way beyond their initial prognosis.

Immunotherapies, which are designed to harness certain components of the immune system for a more targeted treatment of the cancers, can cost £2500 per infusion in the UK. The Optune cost an average of £17,500-£20,000 per month. A genetic research clinic in Germany (CeGaT, website: https://www.cegat.com) that can tailor a bespoke treatment for Sam cost around £100,000.

The total treatments costs are beyond what we can raise as a family without compromising their young children’s future. My sister is also currently on maternity leave from her full time employment and is now the full time carer for Sam and their kids. And Sam will no longer be able to work.

The doctors offering these treatments will look at the tumour in more detail to identify its specific genetic characteristics and then design a “vaccine” to target them. The aim is to hopefully allow this “vaccine” to activate his immune system to destroy the cancer cells, or at least slow it down.

My sister has not stopped researching the various options day and night, and dawn, speaking to neurosurgeons, neurooncologists and people who have had success with the treatments.

It was a big decision for the family to take this on to this page and publicly, but we can really do with your help. Sadly, the costs are snowballing beyond the sacrifices we have already made as a family. But we don’t want to give up on Sam and their beautiful young family.

Thank you so much for reading. I will be updating this page and all of you on how Samuel is progressing, and hopefully, how the treatments are working.

We are incredibly grateful for your kindness and compassion.