'How do you tell someone you have brain cancer?': Man's journey to beat killer disease
A Sydney man is fighting to raise $110,000 so he can have life-saving surgery to stop a rare malignant brain tumour returning.
Mark Sullivan, 31, from Naremburn, was looking forward to marrying the love of his life Estelle in the middle of 2013 when the first tell-tale symptoms of the brain tumour occurred.
The couple, who have been together for six years, were out with a group of friends when Mark made a random comment that had no relation to the conversation, he later put it down to food allergies.
The unusual behaviour continued for the next few weeks and he eventually made an appointment with his GP who referred him to an allergy clinic in Melbourne.
Mr Sullivan told Yahoo7 that when he arrived home he took an allergy therapy for the next couple of months.
"I was so mentally caught up in my food allergies that I started cutting out all different types of foods each day assuming I was reacting to that food.
"It was so bad that I got to the stage where I was eating next to nothing but boiled rice, vegetables and chicken.
"Due to fatigue I was also surviving on four cups of coffee or Red Bull to get me through the day," Mr Sullivan told Yahoo7.
Suddenly a new symptom appeared and Mr Sullivan began to lose his short term memory, he then decided to buy memory pills.
Estelle knew something more serious was wrong and insisted they got a second opinion.
Mr Sullivan was then referred to a psychologist, all the while Estelle had been researching her fiance's symptoms online and found that they all pointed to a brain tumour.
"This is when she insisted we see yet another GP for a third opinion. Thank God she did or I wouldn’t be here today."
On February 17 2014 the couple headed to a medical practice in North Sydney where doctors performed some tests and then referred Mr Sullivan for an MRI scan.
A few hours after the scan the doctor rang Mr Sullivan with the devastating news.
He said: "Mark, I have your MRI results and I would like you to come in and see me ASAP. They have found a lump in your brain".
"I will never forget that moment, never."
The couple hugged, cried and called their families to break the news.
"I was a 30 year old healthy male and my fiancé, 29, at the happiest stage of our lives. Then you ask the question, why me? What have I done to deserve this? I would never wish this on anyone," Mr Sullivan said.
Mr Sullivan was booked in to see the neurosurgeon first thing the following morning where he learned the tumour was 4cm by 4cm, was laying in the centre of his brain and would kill him if it wasn't immediately operated on.
He had the first critical operation on February 19 2014 and where doctors removed 60 percent of the tumour, they couldn't tell if it was benign of malignant.
Due to the seriousness of the case doctors operated again the next day to try and remove the rest.
"Due to it being a rare and unusual type of tumour it was sent to several laboratories around the world to seek their scholarship and diagnosis," Mr Sullivan said.
It was found the tumour was a high grade III anaplastic astrocytoma type of brain cancer - a specific type of tumour that grows at a rapid pace.
Since having the tumour removed life will never be the same again for Mr Sullivan .
Instead of doing 12 hour days at work on construction sites as a surveyor he is at home retraining his brain to get his memory back and at the gym doing rehabilitation.
Another side effect of the operation is the loss of right peripheral vision in both eyes and he cannot drive.
But one huge thing to keep the couple positive is the baby they have on the way calling it the 'best motivation'.
Mark is currently in remission but has been advised that the likelihood of the tumour returning is high.
"One thing is that we do not know when, it could be six months, two years, five years or even 20 years, but the likelihood of the tumour returning is high," he said.
After extensive research Mr and Mrs Sullivan decided to head to Germany next summer to the Duderstadt Germany Cancer Clinic to undergo a treatment known as Dendritic Cell Immunotherapy.
"The treatment involves taking my blood treating it with cutting edge immunology technology and then returning it to my body for a complete cancer remission," he said.
The couple have set up a fundraising page called Help Mark beat brain cancer and have already reached just over $3,000 in one day.
Throughout the trauma Mr Sullivan has been able to keep his sense of humour and says losing a lot of his memory through the experience has probably helped him.
"I kept the tumour a secret for ages. I was embarrassed and really nervous about everyone knowing," he said.
"How do tell someone you have a brain tumour?"
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