During Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month we’re thinking particularly about the 260 families every year who learn that a loved one aged between 13 and 24 has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, often with a very poor prognosis.
Before Ethan Treharne was diagnosed at the age of 15 with a glioblastoma (GBM), he was an incredibly active teenager, playing football, basketball and cricket, as well as enjoying camping and orienteering, in between preparing for his GCSEs.
After a weekend working towards his Duke of Edinburgh Award, Ethan experienced a headache which, over a few days, became unbearable. He had an MRI scan which revealed a tumour and underwent surgery twice, developing epilepsy as a side effect of radiotherapy. During nine months of chemotherapy, Ethan (pictured centre below with his siblings) had to take 26 tablets daily.
When treatment options had been exhausted in the UK, Ethan’s parents Nikki and Justin (pictured at the top of the page) raised funds to take their eldest son to Germany for immunotherapy treatment at a cost of around £150,000, but sadly Ethan became too poorly to travel to continue his treatment and he died aged 17.
After Ethan’s death, Nikki said: “Our focus has changed to campaigning and fundraising towards better treatment options and eventually a cure so that we can rewrite the future of people diagnosed with the disease.”
The family has set up the Fundraising Group A New Hope for Ethan to keep his memory alive and were at the launch of our Centre of Excellence at the Institute of Cancer Research. Its focus is on paediatric-type diffuse high-grade gliomas – a collection of brain tumours in children and young adults with an extremely poor clinical outcome. The new Centre will be working to identify new treatments to bring hope for future young people affected.
Donate to A New Hope for Ethan www.justgiving.com/campaign/anewhopeforethan
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