Help Paul Get More Time With His Family

Hi, I’m Paul.

I’m a husband to my wonderful wife, Hayley, and dad to our two amazing boys, Noah (8) and Ethan (6). They are my world and everything I’m fighting for.

In April 2024, our lives changed forever when I was diagnosed with a Grade 3 Astrocytoma, an aggressive and unpredictable form of brain cancer. Hearing those words, “you have a brain tumour,” shattered everything we knew. The prognosis is devastating, with an average survival of just a few years.

Since then, I’ve undergone an awake craniotomy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital (this type of surgery is featured in Surgeons: At the Edge of Life, BBC iPlayer Series 5 Episode 2), followed by seven weeks of daily radiotherapy and twelve months of chemotherapy, which I completed in September 2025.

It has been the hardest year of our lives, full of fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty, but we’ve faced it together. Through all the hospital visits and difficult days, we’ve done everything we can to keep life joyful for our boys. They still deserve laughter, bedtime stories, and carefree days, even when their parents are quietly holding back tears.

After months of research and hope, we found a glimmer of light in a groundbreaking immunotherapy treatment called ADCV, this treatment is manufactured in the same manner as DCVax-L which had a successful clinical trial completed in 2015 led by Professor Keyoumars Ashkan at King’s College Hospital.

ADCV is a personalised vaccine that helps the immune system recognise and attack tumour cells. In a major clinical trial, it more than doubled the five-year survival rate for patients with Grade 4 Glioblastoma, from 5.7% to 13%.

Although my diagnosis is Grade 3, we’re hopeful that ADCV could give us what we need most: more time. Time for more birthdays, more memories, and more days together as a family.

Sadly, this treatment isn’t available on the NHS or through private insurance. The only way to access it is through a special programme that we have to fund ourselves.

That’s why we’re fundraising, not for a miracle but for a chance.

A chance to watch our boys grow up.

A chance to hold Hayley’s hand for a little longer.

A chance to live.

A chance to give our boys more years with their dad.

Any donation, no matter the size, or even sharing our story, means more to us than we can ever say. Your kindness could give us the gift of time and help our family hold onto hope.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

Paul, Hayley, Noah & Ethan

#HopeForPaul