A young father diagnosed with incurable brain cancer after experiencing numbness in his fingers has boldly declared he will “crush” his five-year illness. Personal trainer Jack Carpenter, 36, realized something was wrong when he started feeling strange sensations in his fingertips and having difficulty with simple tasks like turning off the car or holding a pen.
Jack and his wife Emily, also 36, were devastated to learn, after undergoing a CT scan two months later, that doctors had discovered three tumors in his brain; This was such a shocking event that Jack fainted as soon as he heard the news. In September, he was officially diagnosed with third-degree astrocytoma, a formidable and incurable form of brain cancer, and given three to five years to live.
However, Jack will begin a regimen of radiotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink the tumors from 21 October. She also began various health measures to prolong the life of her little girls, Margot, three, and Elodie, one year old.
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Jack, whose family have set up a GoFundMe page to support him, told PA Real: “I realize this will catch up with me eventually but I don’t let anyone tell me I’ve got two years, five years, one year.” Life. “It’s sad, and of course you cry, you think about your children, but I don’t feel sad anymore because my first attention is turned to proving people wrong. They don’t know me, they don’t know my fitness level, they don’t know the strength I put into doing everything I could to crush those five years.”
Emily, a professional fundraiser for mental health charity Mind, shared the emotional impact of her partner’s illness, especially after losing her mother to cancer just before her 21st birthday.
“This obviously takes me back to that time and there’s a lot of emotion in that,” he said. “It’s a different challenge for me than Jack finding this because I have to deal with my children’s emotions and my own emotions.”
I started feeling unusual symptoms in June
In June, Jack, from Felixstowe in East Suffolk, began experiencing unusual numbness in his fingers and a disconnect between his brain’s commands and his body’s responses.
“When I went to turn off my car engine, my brain was freezing, so I knew what I wanted to do, but my left finger wouldn’t press the button,” he explained. “Even simple things like picking up a pen, I miss holding a pen in my hand.”
Jack visited his GP where he underwent a range of tests, including vision and balance checks, but no significant problems were detected. Initially suspected to have a pinched nerve, Jack was advised by his local hospital in Ipswich to have a routine CT scan to rule out other concerns, which occurred on 27 August.
Devastated by the results, Jack’s partner Emily described the harrowing moment: “Jack went into complete shock, passed out in the chair” after learning the scan revealed three brain tumours.
He was immediately referred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, for further investigation; One of the tumors was confirmed in a biopsy performed here on September 4. On September 10, Jack was diagnosed with third-degree astrocytoma.
Jack has been using steroids since his diagnosis to combat swelling in his brain and plans to start radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment at Ipswich Hospital from 21 October.
Emily said: “A lot of my sadness comes from sadness for Margot and Elodie; they are desperate for normality and it’s very difficult for us to give them that right now.” She added: “I’m a mother and I’m trying to protect my two daughters from this.” “
Despite maintaining a fairly healthy lifestyle as a personal trainer and athlete for eight years, including running his own obstacle course racing training facility, Jack said: “My doctor told me from the neck down I was a 21-year-old talented athlete.
“Sometimes I lie in bed and wonder ‘why me? What did I do to deserve this?’ I think, but it’s not anything I did that caused this.
“I’m just a 1% person, a very unlucky person, whatever is causing this is probably a piece of DNA gone wrong somewhere.”
Jack said he struggles with fatigue after any physical activity and struggles to explain this to his young daughter, Margot. “There are so many cancer factors right now, and we are learning every day what the best thing to do is,” he said.
“But how do I explain to my daughter that I don’t want to do the puzzle with her because I’m too tired?”
Emily stated that their older daughter’s superpower is her “emotional intelligence” and said: “She is so in tune with us and the slightest negativity at home that she understands it immediately. She knows that her father is upset, but it’s really difficult.”
Jack has since embarked on a series of health steps, including following a ketogenic diet that eliminates sugars and hormones, consuming organic fruits, vegetables, and grass-fed meats, and placing cheese plants around their home to help increase oxygen levels in their bodies. their environment. “If you can nourish your body with really good, healthy fats, you get all that goodness to the brain, which we hope will help,” he explained.
The family also set up a GoFundMe page to help with the day-to-day costs of Jack’s treatment.
They have managed to raise over £6,000 so far and while financial contributions continue to flow in, offers of practical support, such as accompanying Jack on hospital visits or taking the family dog for a walk, are also welcomed. “It makes you realize how wonderful people are, it cheers me up to see people donate,” Jack said.
Charity worker Emily shared her husband’s thoughts, saying: “I am constantly amazed by people’s generosity but for this to happen to you is so humbling.”
For more information or to donate, please visit the family’s fundraising page here.