Glenn's Story - Colon Cancer

In early 2023, Glenn was a fit and active 44 year old dad enjoying life with his wife and two children aged 8 and 11. He said: “I’d got to a stage in life where everything had fallen into place. I’d met my wife Sharon, the lady of my dreams and had two great children James and Arabella."

“I had a job I enjoyed in finance, and I was also very passionate about exercise and had done several marathons, snowboarding around the world and I was heavily into cycling. I felt at the time I was reaching peak fitness – life was very good and I was really happy.” 

On 6th February, Glenn’s life changed as he cycled to work. 

“I had time to give my wife a cup of tea in bed before leaving. About halfway there, all I felt was a warm rush of air of someone starting to overtake, then I hit the floor and was knocked unconscious."

“When I came round, I was in hospital – I had been hit from behind by a coach and I had fractures in my back and neck. At that time, I felt incredibly lucky because I could easily have died that day. Three days later, scans were done for the broken bones, but those scans showed I had a tumour in my colon that had started to spread to my liver. I went from relief and happiness of being alive to this different world. It was so scary.” 

Glenn’s diagnosis was stage 4 colon cancer, with a rare BRAF mutation. 

You begin to think ‘why me?’ I had been doing all the right things, living quite healthily. I never expected to be someone to get this cancer at this early stage in life.

Four weeks later, Glenn was readmitted to hospital for an emergency operation to remove the tumour and section of colon, after which he needed to re-learn how to eat and digest food again. 

Sharon said that Glenn’s cancer journey was “a rollercoaster” from the very start. 

“After Glenn had recovered enough from the initial accident and the bowel operation, he started chemotherapy. The first cycle went well but on the second cycle he developed blisters which were so severe that it took him off treatment for 3 weeks. Then, in May - just as he was about to go back on treatment - he had an unexpected fall, which resulted in him breaking his jaw in two places. After recovery from the jaw operation, he was moved onto the second line of treatment called BEACON in June."

“The second line of treatment gave us some stability, but it was only 4 months before the tumour markers began to triple every 2 weeks.  This resulted in being moved on to a third line of treatment in November, which only slowed the growth. It was decided to try radiotherapy, as surgery was not an option - because the cancer had metastasised in the liver – and to see what trials Glenn would be eligible for. He had SIRT radiotherapy in early February to control the spread of the tumours within the liver."

“A few weeks later Glenn was eligible to start a trial at the Sarah Cannon Institute.  His initial results were mixed but fairly stable, however, Glenn began get constipated more often. On further investigation they found that the cancer had metastasised around the original site of the bowel operation. This resulted in another operation to remove the cancer at this site and fit a stoma – to give Glenn a better quality of life and with the view to get him back on another line of treatment."

“Glenn came through the operation but, unfortunately less than a week later, his legs began to swell and retain fluid, and blood results confirmed that Glenn was going into liver failure."

“We knew we weren’t in a great place as the cancer was spreading aggressively but that did not stop Glenn doing his daily physio walks and karaoke. He was courageous to the end.” 

Glenn died on 9th May 2024 with his family at his bedside. Sharon said: “We all had time to say our goodbyes and talk to him.  We were with him when he passed away."

“It is still so difficult to think that he had been so well and had no symptoms prior to the accident. It just felt so unfair.  However, he could have died in the road traffic accident so, even though the 15 months were tough, we had time together instead of him being suddenly taken from us. Now whenever we see a cyclist now, we smile and think of Glenn."

“We are also pleased that he got to see the SU2C film before he died as he was passionate about wanting to help raise awareness, especially around BRAF mutations and he hoped by raising awareness that research will help others with the BRAF mutation in the future.”