One Year On…

Exactly one year ago today, on Tuesday 19 August 2025, I woke up in Pembury Hospital to be told by two very sombre-looking doctors that the CT scan they’d done the previous night had revealed what appeared to be a small cancerous lesion on my brain.

They believed it was malignant.

At that point, I didn’t really understand the enormity of what I was being told.

The Day Everything Changed

My initial reaction was that cancer treatment has developed incredibly, and that they could take out the cancer, and that would be that. It was only when I got home later that day and I was able to research things a bit more, that I understood the severity of what I could likely be dealing with.

A quick Google of ‘malignant brain cancer’ revealed that the most common malignant primary brain tumour in adults was something called a glioblastoma and I soon found out that what makes glioblastoma particularly frightening isn’t simply how common it is, but how aggressive it is.

The Numbers

Numbers vary substantially according to age, molecular characteristics, extent of surgery, and treatment, but the below is a rough guideline to survival rates:

Time from diagnosis	Approx. proportion surviving
1 Year	25 to 50%
2 Years	15 to 25%
5 Years	4 to 10%
Median Survival	12 to 18 months

And Yet, Here I Am

Well, as of today, I can say that I have survived one year from diagnosis.

As I sat at home a year ago pondering those statistics and the challenges that lay ahead, brain surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, my mind inevitably wandered forward to how I might be feeling a year later.

Would I still be able to walk and talk? See and hear? Would I still be able to enjoy the simple things in life, like seeing friends and family?

The answer, thankfully, is yes.

In fact, right now my life has changed remarkably little.

I am still running, going to the gym once or twice a week, spending time with friends and family, I feel strong, fit and healthy and positive and have done for almost the entirety of the past 12 months.

Not Taking Anything for Granted

I don’t want to get carried away. I’m very aware that glioblastoma doesn’t follow a timetable, and the most predictable thing about this disease is that it is unpredictable.

Everything could change when I have my next scan in November.

But that’s tomorrow’s problem.

Today, one year after two sombre-looking doctors told me that I probably had malignant brain cancer, I feel incredibly lucky.

I’m still running.

I’m still going to the gym.

I’m still seeing friends, spending time with my family, going on holiday, laughing, making plans and generally getting on with life.

And my latest MRI showed no evidence of disease.

A year ago, I was sitting in a hospital bed wondering what my life might look like twelve months later.

I couldn’t have imagined that it would look quite this normal.

And for today, that’s more than enough.