Having a brain tumour hasn’t stopped Oliver from watching the Blues
Posted 12th April 2022
Having a tumour the size of a grapefruit removed from his brain did not stop a 22-year-old Everton season ticket holder from watching his beloved team.
And despite 33 rounds of radiotherapy at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre to attack the cancer left behind after his operation, Oliver Cooper-Grace has only missed a couple of home matches since he was diagnosed in last summer.
Oliver is now having chemotherapy – also through The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – to try to shrink the rest of the brain tumour after his life-saving operation at The Walton Centre in June 2021.
His consultant told him he was less than five days away from slipping into a coma due to the large tumour in his head, after he went to A&E following weeks of headaches that grew with intensity and dizziness.
Oliver has been determined to continue with normal life as best he can, though the treatment he needs means he has had to take extended time away from his job as a care worker looking after people with learning disabilities.
That normal life includes Oliver still walking to Goodison Park to watch his team from his home in Bootle. “I’ve been a season ticket holder at Everton for 14 years and only missed one of two games because I was in hospital. The season itself has been pretty stressful this year, but it is important for me to go and watch them and feel normal again.
“Having a great family and friends around me has also helped a lot. My mates just treat me as normal, apart from my new nickname, ‘Swellhead’, after my head blew up with the size of the tumour!”
It was Oliver’s 22nd birthday less than a week after his first operation to remove the huge tumour and his mates turned up at his home after shaving their heads to give him support. “They were amazed to see that I still had some hair – in fact, I had more than them!” he said.
Oliver is telling the story of his treatment to raise the profile of Brain Tumour Awareness Month in March, when the NHS and charities are keen to inform people about the illness and urge people to visit a health professional if they have worrying symptoms.
Oliver said: “I went to my GP when I had headaches and dizziness, but I didn’t really have other symptoms until it got far worse and I started being sick.”
The GP prescribed medication but it did not help. “Then the headaches became really intense and I started vomiting, so I was taken into A&E and they did tests. They said that the tumour was so big and there was so much pressure on my brain that within five days I would have been in a coma.
“Being diagnosed with a brain tumour actually came as a relief. I had realised something was seriously wrong, so understanding what it was and being told what treatment I would expect was good to know.”
The operation removed 70% of the tumour, before radiotherapy and further surgery, followed by chemotherapy targeting the rest of the growth.
Oliver’s mum Sharon said: “He has been remarkable. Oliver has taken everything in his stride and amazes us with how positive he is. He knows it is not going away at the moment but gets on with things as normal as best he can.
“We didn’t know much about brain tumours before Oliver was diagnosed,” she said. “But it is the biggest killer for the under-40s and the treatments have not moved on much in the past 30 years.
“His diagnosis was the last thing we were expecting but, looking back, Oliver had classic symptoms. If anyone has an ongoing headache for a few weeks, they must go to their GP to get checked out.”
Oliver is under the care of Dr Shaveta Mehta, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, who said: “The early detection of brain tumours remains challenging, especially in young people, as these tumours are very rare and the symptoms can be vague.
“The common symptoms – such as headache and dizziness, as Oliver had – can be due to multiple causes, which in most cases are not serious. But if someone is experiencing a combination of symptoms which are persisting and/or getting worse over the time, you should seek urgent medical attention.”
More information about brain tumours is available on NHS.uk.
