Brighton dad describes incurable brain tumour diagnosis

Matthew White, 40, from Brighton, was diagnosed with an astrocytoma brain tumour in October last year.

He said: “I had been a bit more tired than usual, and I felt burnt out for a while but overall thought I was well.

"Then one evening, I went to play football and about an hour in, everything changed – I had a seizure. We went to A&E and I was admitted into hospital.”  

Over the following weekend Matthew had 15 more seizures. He underwent CT and MRI scans. 

He said: “I work in the NHS, but you never think you are going to be the patient in that hospital bed. And then I met the neurosurgeons and they said, 'we’ve found something'.

“I’ve never been more afraid. Then hearing the words, that there is no cure, I just sat there and cried.  
  
“I looked at Lianne, and I have never seen someone look so determined. In that moment, I absolutely knew that she would do whatever it takes to be there for me.” 

In November 2023, Matthew had surgery to reduce the size of the tumour, followed by radiotherapy and is now having chemotherapy which is due to finish in December.   

Matthew and Lianne with their two children (Image: Cancer Research UK) Matthew is married to his childhood sweetheart Lianne, a paediatric nurse, and together they have a daughter and a son.

He said: “I think about my children’s future every single day – all the things they will achieve and the places they will go.

“The treatment is tough but I take the medicine because hopefully it will buy some time so I don’t have to miss all the memories I haven’t yet made.

“I’m not too proud to admit that I’m scared. Some days it’s easier than others, some days everything feels impossible. When I look in the mirror, sometimes I don’t see myself. 
  
“I have come a long way. I climbed the mountain of surgery, the mountain of radiotherapy and now I have the mountain of eight months of chemotherapy. 
  
“No one really knows what the long-term impact of this treatment will be, but all the cancer is doing is making the love we feel for each other stronger.”

Matthew, whose family moved to Sussex when he was just four, studied at the University of Brighton and Brighton & Sussex Medical School. He has worked in the NHS in the area for 15 years and played a key part in the local response to Covid during the pandemic, helping to set up a number of vaccination centres across Sussex.

He said: “I have been lucky to have grown up around Brighton - a dynamic, evolving, free-spirited city with nature on every side. There are very few places I’d rather have been all this time.”

Matthew is urging people in Sussex to support Stand Up To Cancer, the joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4. The campaign takes developments from the laboratory and accelerates them into new tests and treatments.