Doctors said he had a trapped nerve. His gut instinct was right all along
A dad who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour has revealed the first sign he knew something was wrong.
Gearoid Fox made several visits to doctors just to be told he was suffering from a trapped nerve – but the 44-year-old knew deep down it was much worse.
The business owner, from Levenshulme, began experiencing numbness down the left side of his body in September 2023.
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The dad, who shares four children with his partner Maeve, noticed he had developed a weak grip and kept dropping things.
Gearoid visited his local GP several times but doctors believed his strange symptoms were nothing of concern and likely down to a trapped nerve.
But recognising similar symptoms in his mother, who sadly died of a brain tumour, Gearoid worried his change in health was down to something sinister.
Then, a CT scan on October 26 confirmed his worst fears – the dad had an aggressive glioma tumour.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “My mother had the same one. She died of a brain tumour so I knew the symptoms myself but doctors were dismissive of them.”
A glioma is a tumour that forms when glial cells, cells that support and help nerve cells function in the nervous system, grow out of control. Gliomas usually grow in the brain but can also form in the spinal cord.
Gearoid underwent surgery which successfully removed 95 per cent of the tumour. Sadly, five per cent of it has grown into his brain and is unable to be removed without specialist treatment.
Further tests showed the remaining tumour to be aggressive, meaning it did not respond to chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
Gearoid has