A dying man has been given less than two years to live after doctors failed to detect his incurable brain cancer.
Matthew Collins, from South Wales, suffered from thunderclap headaches in the summer of 2020 and was prescribed painkillers by his GP.
The 35-year-old subsequently suffered seizures and was told after a hospital stay that he would have to wait a year for an MRI scan.
After his symptoms continued to worsen and he suffered a stroke, he was eventually diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of fast-growing brain tumor that can have a life expectancy of just 12 to 18 months from diagnosis.
While Mr Collins has undergone surgery to remove the tumor, he faces months of radiotherapy and treatment.
Mr Collins, who used to work in communications at a university, is now fundraising in the hope of making some money £250,000 to pay for a potentially life-extending injection, which is not available on the website NHS.
Matthew Collins, 35, from South Wales, was diagnosed with brain cancer after suffering severe headaches and a stroke
Pictured: Mr Collins (right) with friends Richie Anderson (left) and Luke Bolch (centre)
Mr Collins suffered severe headaches in July 2020 ‘unlike anything he had experienced before’.
He said they would cause pain for 20 to 30 seconds every 10 to 15 minutes.
‘It felt like someone was hitting my head with a sharp object, but deep inside my head, like a bomb went off,’ he told MailOnline.
Worried, he went to his doctor, who told him to have an eye test and prescribed naproxen, an anti-inflammatory drug and a painkiller.
Mr Collins said: ‘I went to the optician the next day and everything was normal. I was referred back to the GP.’
However, it was the weekend and before he could make an appointment, he suffered a tonic-clonic seizure, which causes the muscles to stiffen and twitch.
Mr Collins was taken to Prince Charles Hospital but was discharged at 2am.
However, on the way home he suffered another seizure and returned to the emergency room. That night he suffered more seizures and was admitted to intensive care.
Mr Collins underwent a CT scan and was discharged four days later, but was told the wait for an MRI scan could be almost a year.
A month later he woke up unable to move the left side of his body.
He went back to the emergency room at Prince Charles Hospital and underwent another CT scan, which revealed he had suffered a medium-sized hemorrhagic stroke.
As a result, he was left with slurred speech and complete paralysis of the left hand.
After insisting on an MRI, he was told by doctors that although his stroke had been ‘very large’, there was no evidence of an underlying tumor or sign of an aneurysm.
On August 30, Mr Collins was sent to Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda, a stroke rehabilitation unit, where he was sent home after two weeks for rehabilitation in the community.
But at the end of September his headaches returned.
This time, medics at Prince Charles Hospital performed a reassuring CT scan, but discovered a brain tumor – an abnormality that the medics were unable to detect in July.
A week later he had the tumor removed and was diagnosed with glioblastoma – the most aggressive tumor that can form in the brain.
About 2,500 people are diagnosed each year in Britain, while in the US it is 12,000.
Mr Collins credits his girlfriend Claire Hawk’s ‘nagging’ and concern with saving his life. In a blog post he wrote: ‘It was Claire’s nagging about me having to go back to hospital after my stroke that led to the tumor being found.
“Without her, I would most likely be dead already because of the amount of swelling and pressure they found in my head.”
Mr Collins said he has suffered from depression and anxiety for most of his adult life, causing him to struggle with relationships and his self-esteem.
But he now thinks it was caused by the brain tumor.
“It turns out that the old tumor has probably been dormant there for years, pressing on the part of my brain where all my personality, emotions and memories are stored,” he wrote.
Mr Collins pictured with his girlfriend, Claire Hawk, who encouraged him to return to the doctors after the headaches returned
Mr Collins (centre of photo) with school friend Ted (left) and Aimee Collins (right)
‘The tumor made me doubt my self-worth, withdraw from my friends and family for years and cut myself off from the world, leaving me feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere. It took so much energy to force myself to feel any joy in life.”
Now Mr Collins faces months of radiotherapy and treatment.
However, he has one Go Fund Me page hoping to raise £250,000 for a DCVax-L vaccine.
The injection is a form of immunotherapy. To make the shot, scientists combine cancer-killing cells called dendritic cells with proteins from brain tumor cells. It is hoped the vaccine will help the immune system recognize and kill brain tumor cells.
Mr Collins hopes Dc-VaxL will extend his life doubly.
Mr Collins said: ‘I don’t know exactly how long I will have, or what state of health I will be in when the cancer eats away at my body.
‘Eventually it will enter the part of my brain that controls my vital organs and then shut them down. I could lose my sight or any of my senses at any moment.”
The £250,000 would cover a lump sum of £75,000 to start the development process of the personalized medication, before then spending £25,000 on the first three doses.
If this is successful, he will enter the ‘booster phase’, in which he will receive a further three doses in the first year of treatment.
Provided the jab works for Mr Collins, he will then receive doses twice a year, bringing the total to £200,000 by the end of year 2.
It then earns him another £50,000 a year to help him fight the cancer in his brain. It means £250,000 could help Mr Collins survive for three years.
So far his fundraising campaign has raised more than £28,000 in a week.
“If you can help in any way, I can’t express how grateful I, my family and friends would be if they gave me a chance in life,” he said.