A 42-year-old diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour that’s left him paralysed down one side, is hoping to get back doing the things he loves, including seeing his seven-month old grandson.
Stuart Smart first went to the doctors on August 21 after pins and needles in his right arm and leg had worsened.
He’s now having palliative care after being diagnosed with an inoperable high grade multi focal glioblastoma.
Scans showed he had multiple tumours in the left side of his brain.
But Stuart and wife Philippa, of Spalding, are determined to enjoy every day they have including being with their family – sons Ryan and Jamie, who is married to Sophie. They live in Kent with young son Artie.
Philippa says seeing Artie ‘means the whole world’ to Stuart.
After 17 years together, she and Stuart were married in Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital on September 8.
Philippa has set up a Go Fund Me Page in a bid to raise £3,000 for a wheelchair to give Stuart back some of the independence he’s lost, including continuing to play his hobby airsoft, a team shooting game using airguns.
“Stuart loved playing airsoft most weekends and still maintains he will be back out there playing in whatever way possible, shooting left handed,” said Philippa who described her marriage ceremony in the hospital as ‘an extremely humbling and emotional experience’.
“He is determined not to surrender to this awful disease easily.
“It is so easy to take good health for granted and scary just how quickly lives can change.
“Stuart is home now after a short stay in a hospice after contracting shingles and we are making the most of each day the best we can although without a wheelchair it’s difficult for Stuart to go outside with very limited mobility.
“Every day brings a new challenge and its now brought us COVID unfortunately.”
One big boost has been the reaction to the Go Fund Me page.
Nearly £2,700 had been raised towards the £3,000 required for the wheelchair.
“The support has been incredible,” Philippa continued. “We’ve both been blown away.
“I had no idea how quickly the donations would start to accumulate, by the end of the first day we were almost a third of the way.
“It would be amazing if we could exceed the target, this would allow Stuart to be able to do as much as he wanted within his abilities and at the present moment we are pretty much confined to the house without a suitable chair and vehicle.”
To donate visit www.gofundme.com/f/stuart-has-an-inoperable-multu-focal-glioblastoma
