George’s Story
“We never ever thought this would happen to us, George was so healthy and happy.”
Louise, George’s mum
In April 2021 George suddenly started having excruciating headaches, followed by bouts of vomiting which we were told were migraines. After 3 weeks of taking him to the GP, A&E, the opticians, calling an ambulance and begging for an MRI, George was booked in for an MRI. We never made it home from hospital that evening. They discovered that George had a brain tumour. In May 2021, George had his first 10-hour brain surgery. He bounced back, and was home 3 days later – no one could believe it.
On 19th May 2021, we were told that at just 12 years old, George had a Glioblastoma brain tumour.
A word we had never, ever heard of but one that would devastate our family forever. We were told there were no survivors and that we should go and make some memories as his life expectancy was around 12 months. Our lives fell apart.
George endured a gruelling 6 weeks cycle of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Over the next few months George endured more than most of us will ever face, always with a smile on his face and a bravery that we can’t express. We nearly lost him a couple of times, and he had to have 3 emergency brain surgeries all lasting around 10 hours. Whilst all this was happening we tried to make as many memories as possible and searched for and prayed for a miracle.
On 1st April 2022, we were told there was no more treatment for George. We had to take our little boy home, faced with the knowledge that we probably didn’t have long left. On 12th April 2022 at 11.45pm our little boy slowly slipped away from this world, surrounded by his loving family. We had just 11 months from diagnosis to losing our beautiful son.
Our lives will never be the same, we are absolutely shattered. We have decided to continue to fight, in George’s memory as until a cure is found then more families are facing this news every single day – we never ever thought this would happen to us, George was so healthy and happy.
We want to work with the Tessa Jowell Foundation to help raise awareness, seek new treatments and give hope to other families that find themselves in this devastating position.
We will continue to fight so that George’s life isn’t in vain.