A young dad was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour after displaying symptoms similar to someone with Alzheimer’s disease. Archie Siddall, 24, became increasingly forgetful which his doctor initially put down to stress. However, severe headaches then followed pushing his family to seek answers.
For his mum, Anne Siddall, the diagnosis was “unbearable”, having already lost her daughter Madeline at the age of just 15 to a sudden cardiac arrest.
Anne, 55, said: “It’s unbearable to think of losing another child. If I think about it too much, I go to a very dark place.
“We were told the tumour was incurable. We haven’t asked for a prognosis; we just didn’t want to go there.”
Anne and husband Craig, 58, who live in Eckington in Derbyshire, first noticed something was wrong with Archie in September 2022.
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She said: “When working together, Craig would ask Archie to fetch something from his van.
“But he would return empty-handed because he couldn’t remember what he’d been asked.
“Archie would ask me what was for tea, then two minutes later he would ask me again. It was like living with someone with Alzheimer’s.”
Archie, dad to one-year-old Amelia, went to his GP and was told the problem was stress-related.
Craig took Archie back to hospital and managed to get a CT scan which showed a large mass on his brain, which was later diagnosed as glioblastoma (GBM) – a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumour.
Anne said: “Surgeons at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield managed to remove around 50 percent of the tumour but were unable to take any more because it was so deep on his brain stem.
“Afterwards, we were told the tumour was a GBM which is the worst type you can get. I can’t believe he had this thing in his head and it took so long to find.”
Archie had six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy at Weston Park Cancer Centre in Sheffield.
He is now on six cycles of tablet-form chemotherapy.
Anne said: “We’re trying to make memories with Archie and his little girl Amelia but Archie suffers from short-term memory loss so he struggles to remember what we’ve done.”
She has now signed up to the Jog 26.2 Miles in May Challenge, to raise vital funds for Brain Tumour Research and give her a new focus.
You can donate via braintumourresearch.org/fundraise/jog-26.2-miles-in-may.
Common symptoms of a brain tumour include:
- Headaches
- Seizures (fits)
- Persistently feeling sick (nausea), being sick (vomiting) and drowsiness
- Mental or behavioural changes, such as memory problems or changes in personality
- Progressive weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Vision or speech problems.
If you think you have a brain tumour you should speak to your doctor.
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