Wigan law lecturer details journey of last 16 months following brain tumour diagnosis

Adam Pendlebury was devastated to be told he a brain tumour in August 2022, and since then he has undergone a battery of energy-sapping and tough treatments to keep the illness at bay.

Even before surgery he decided to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support through its Brave The Shave Campaign – raising thousands of pounds in the process.

But the Hindley Green 43-year-old had a huge ordeal to face over the coming months.

He endured a particularly bad spell following the operation, as he was still suffering seizures for six months afterwards and one was so bad he ended up at Wigan Infirmary.

For a period after that, Adam was unable to speak and thought that he may have had a stroke due to knowing what he wanted to say, but not being able to.

At this time meetings with consultants took place who assessed the results and confirmed that the tumour was at grade three, otherwise known as an anaplastic or malignant meningioma.

Options were presented to the Wigan Athletic fan and podcast host and with further surgery posing a high risk of paralysis it led to a treatment plan consisting of radiotherapy, a total of 35 sessions taking place from October to December 2022.

The treatment was intense, taking place five days a week for several weeks and it left Adam with chronic fatigue over the Christmas period.

He said: “You get a bit of time to rest, but then as soon as you start coming round then you’re onto the chemo. You get to sleep over the weekend and then you’re back on it Monday!

"I had six chemo sessions, which would take place every six weeks. I’d go to Christie’s for a day and be placed on a drip paired with medication that you take for 10 days before having four weeks off and then doing it all again. It’s quite tough as the chemotherapy builds up, the side effects of sickness gets a bit nasty but I didn’t get any of the major ones.”

The day before his final chemo session in August this year, Adam received his latest results from his consultant following an MRI, and they showed the tumour was responding well to treatment in the circumstances.

Despite it never being entirely cured, Adam said that ringing the bell is not just about finishing chemotherapy but the fact that it has had an impact. From now on scans will be taken every three months with the view to reducing them to six months if results are positive.

He has expressed gratitude for the support networks that were in place during his treatment, with Macmillan providing key contacts and The Christie giving access to its wellbeing centres.

After his first two courses of treatment he was able to use an outreach centre located in Little Hulton which not only reduced travelling time and provided a personal experience due to being less patients there.

While it can’t be said that life is back to normal yet, progress has been made and saw Adam return to work in September where he is leading a solicitors’ training masters course at Edge Hill University and having more energy allowing him to attend some Wigan Athletic fixtures this season.

Due to not being as big a charity as others, Adam wishes to host a fund-raiser for Brain Tumour Research as it is the biggest killer of children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer: a statistic that many may not be aware of.

Furthermore, just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research is allocated to the devastating disease which 16,000 people across the UK are diagnosed with each year.

Adam is aware that he was lucky enough to have a well established treatment plan because of individuals in the past going through clinical trials, and discovering combinations that work best.

Adam said: “My friends and family really stood up during my treatment as I wasn’t able to drive and won’t be able to until at least next year. Due to some of the delays at times we were able to watch two World Cup matches while we were waiting.

"You can’t just rely on one person as it’s too much to drive day in day out. It’s basically a full-time job and numerous people helped out where they could.”

With fingers crossed that scans don’t indicate anything else developing, Adam hopes to be medically sound and be in full form in terms of work this time next year. This includes attending educational trips that he was previously always a part of.

He’d also like to go on holiday for the first time in around five years, as the Covid-19 pandemic and then diagnosis has prevented him from doing so.

In the meantime, medication reviews will continue to take place and he hopes to reach a stage where they can be reduced which he believes is contributing to the fatigue he is experiencing.

Adam said: “It gives you a different perspective on life and you can never look too far ahead, 12 months is as far as I want to look at the moment and get better step by step.

"It seems to be going okay at the moment and I’m sure there’ll be the odd bump in the road but compared to last year I’m in a much better position now. Even though I still say I’m tired, I was sleeping around 16 hours per day whilst doing radiotherapy.

"I know people have had it a lot worse than me in terms of treatment so I just got on with it, I’m not sure how many needles I’ve had in me the last 12 months!”