In March 2025 Stephen went to the doctors after noticing a lump on his abdomen. He got referred for an ultrasound where they showed concerned. He was then put on a 2 week cancer referral by his doctors, where he had blood tests and an mri booked in April. After this mri, they still couldn’t work out what the lump was, all whilst this was happening the lump had grown to 17cm and was clearly visible through clothing. They referred him to the royal marsden hospital in Chelsea where he had a ct biopsy in June. Within 3 days they had the results, where we was told Stephen had a Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor which is a very rare form of sarcoma cancer, normally caused by neurofibromatosis type 1. Which Stephen also has, which is where non cancerous lumps grow. However this one unfortunately turnt out to be cancerous. We was told that because of the type of sarcoma and the aggression of it, there were no options for Stephen other than surgery to remove the tumour. Stephen had his surgery on 8th July where the whole tumour, which by this time the tumour was 23cm and weighed 3kg, his kidney and his psoas muscle were removed. He spent 6 days in hospital away from his family and his 10 month old baby. Stephen then had a 3 month recovery, including 8 weeks where he could not do anything for his own child. Stephen recovered well and even tho we were told it could return we thought he would lead a normal healthy life with his family.

In October only 3 weeks after proposing to his partner, Stephen was very unwell and spent some time in hospital where his infection markers were over 250 and they should be under 10, he had a heart rate of 200 accompanied by a high temperature, we were all thinking he was having a reaction to his flu jab due to his body having to work 10 times harder as he now only has one kidney. They organised a ct scan for him to just make sure everything was okay. On the 16th October we was told they had found another mass in his abdomen in the exact same place as before. After being reviewed by the royal marsden, we was informed on 23rd October that Stephen’s tumour had returned just over 3 months after it had been removed, this time it has attached itself to his bowel and spread up nearer to his lungs. We was told that surgery would not be an option this time due to how soon after it has recurred and how aggressively it is growing this time. Stephen was informed that chemotherapy is something he can try however, because of how aggressively the tumour is growing, he was informed that it would not control or stop the growth of his tumour and would make him more ill than better. Unfortunately Stephen was told that he has months left before this disease takes his life.

Stephen is only 23 years old and will be leaving behind his family, friends, his partner who he has recently proposed too and his 1 year old daughter. Stephen and his partner are being robbed of everything they had planned together and his daughter is being robbed of her dad. This has affected them all massively and it is a massive shock for them. So we are trying to raise funds to either try and arrange a quick wedding for Stephen and hannah as they would love to get married befor Stephen runs out of time or to try and raise enough to send all 3 to Disney land Paris so later in life liberty-rose will have pictures of her and her mum and dad as for such a young couple they have always been devoted to there daughter we're neighbours and were already watching such a big decline with Stephen he doesn't have long and we just want to help make there journey a little bit more bearable as Stephen deserves the best he is such a gentleman and has always worked right up until he's operation, hannah is having to watch the man she loves and the father of there child decline and struggle so if everyone could share and even just a small donation would make such a difference to a family that does not deserve this journey and such a short time frame given we want to help as much as possible.... thanks for reading Stephens story and let's hope maybe one day he's story can help others,