At just 35 years old, Jason Lewis-Thorne is faced with the heart-wrenching task of planning his own funeral. That’s because he has only months left to live due to a ferocious stage four cancer battle.
The devoted dad to two young children, aged six and two, is determined to increase knowledge about brain tumours while he still can – an illness that stands as the leading cause of cancer deaths in under-40s. Jason is fighting against anaplastic astrocytoma – an uncommon and aggressive type of malignant brain tumour.
Speaking to Surrey Live, he revealed the four symptoms he suffered before his heartbreaking diagnosis.
Headaches
He explained: “I started with severe headaches lasting two or three minutes, which I can only describe as the worst brain freeze and a very intensive sharp stabbing pain through my forehead.”
Despite using paracetamol, ibuprofen, and even Sulphadine, nothing alleviated the agony. Jason opened up about the severity of his experience, saying: “These headaches happened three or four times a day, the pain was unbearable for those three minutes, and I couldn’t focus on anything other than the headache.
“This shook me up for the rest of the day thinking when the next headache attack was going to come and that’s all I could focus on. I was very withdrawn from day to day living.”
Vomiting
He also endured episodes of vomiting as part of his symptoms. Jason, from Teynham, Kent, initially sought help for what he thought were migraines, but his condition worsened with frequent headaches, vomiting, and eventually seizures.
He was prescribed Naproxen and later BetaBlockers after doctors put it down to suspected work stress. But Jason, who had been in the same job for 16 years, knew something else was wrong.
The Brain Tumour Charity notes that vomiting can indicate increased brain pressure from a tumour, especially when paired with headaches.
Seizures and collapse
Jason’s situation escalated when he collapsed in May 2022, and subsequent blood tests revealed high inflammatory markers. He described his ordeal, saying: “As the days and weeks and months went by my symptoms of headaches were persistent, the pain was unbearable, and there were times I would be on my hands and knees crying out in pain. The vomiting was more and more, my legs started to feel weak and jelly-like and then I started experiencing seizures.”
Seizures are a disruption of the brain’s electrical activity and a significant indicator of brain tumours.
Diagnosis
On the occasion of his daughter’s first day at reception, Jason underwent an MRI scan on 2 September and soon discovered he had a brain tumour that was “so large” it was encroaching onto the other side of his cranium.
Recounting the experience, he said: “My immediate emotions were shock, denial, how can this possibly be true? It’s not that I’m an unhealthy person. I don’t smoke and I don’t drink. I’m so young, what are my kids going to think? My wife, family, work and friends? You think it will never happen to you. Let alone at 33 and relatively healthy.”
He faced numerous treatment options, including doing nothing, which would mean not making it to Christmas 2022. Nevertheless, Jason opted for a six-hour craniotomy, successfully removing 85% of the malignancy. Ten weeks on, a biopsy revealed he was suffering from anaplastic astrocytoma, leading to 33 radiotherapy sessions, followed by chemotherapy.
Further scans indicated new growth at the initial site and its spread to three additional regions. Unfortunately, unable to undertake clinical trials, Jason now has a prognosis of six to nine months.
Raising awareness, he said: “Just 12 percent of adults survive for five years after diagnosis. What I find tremendously shocking is over £700million is spent on cancer research in the UK every year, yes less than 3 percent is spent on brain tumours.
“There’s over 120 different types of brain tumours and many of them are cancerous and terminal. And it takes a toll on family and children, financially, many people have to give up work and also many partners become carers. It’s a truly devastating disease with no cure and it has such an impact on family, friends and financial stability.”
His friend, Nathan Oakwell, who previously worked with him at Currys, has kick-started a GoFundMe campaign to cover Jason’s future funeral costs.
With the Brighton Marathon on his agenda for April, Nathan wrote on the fundraising page: “Jason has now been told by consultant oncologists that he has just months left to live and that he should spend the valuable time he has left creating happy memories with his loved ones.
“Jason will be leaving behind his wife and their two children aged 6 and 2. I am hoping to raise these funds for Jason’s family so that they can put the donations towards the funeral costs and give Jason the send off he deserves. Because as you’d expect, not many people have a funeral plan in place at the age of 35.”
Nathan Oakwell is running this year’s Brighton Marathon in aid of his friend Jason. You can donate through his GoFundMe here, with any funds going towards funeral costs and giving Jason the send of he deserves.