A dad-of-two was left almost completely paralysed and unable to talk after surgery to remove a tumour.
Andrew Holladay, 40, from Chester, was left with 'locked in syndrome' after surgery to remove a brain tumour back in 2017, reports Cheshire Live.
The father-of-two had suffered from headaches, dizziness and fatigue for months before his diagnosis.
The tumour was removed in 2017 at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, but complications left Andrew with 'locked in' syndrome.
After almost two years as a patient at the Walton Centre, including nine months in intensive care on a ventilator, he now has near-normal use of the right side of his body and the left side is weak, but improving.
He can now eat and drink, and is slowly regaining his speech, but still relies on a wheelchair to get around.
In 2019, the 40-year-old left hospital and moved into a specialist facility in Crewe.
Unfortunately, Andrew's health deteriorated in March 2020, with doctors telling the family his tumour had grown again.
Andrew's wife, Katie, said the family were told the operation was dangerous, but they chose to keep on fighting.
Speaking to a reporter, Katie said: "His tumour had grown back quite dramatically and he was very, very poorly in the summer.
"They needed to operate again but the surgeon had already told us that she wasn't very happy about operating again because it had gone so badly the first time.
"So the summer most recently there was lots of toing and froing with the team at the Walton saying it's too dangerous to do the operation and then us saying what happens if he doesn't have the operation and they were like probably in a few months he'll likely die.
"Anyway, we got a second opinion and we took a chance. He had another operation at the end of August just gone and they managed to remove pretty much all of the tumour. There were no complications this time.
"He just woke up after the surgery. It was quite amazing really."
Now fundraising is under way by Andrew's family so that they can make modifications to the family home, which is currently inaccessible to Andrew, to allow him to move back.
Andrew is now out of hospital but staying at his parents' home whilst modifications are made.
Katie said she and her family are 'desperate' to have Andrew back in the house.
She said: "You can't really describe what it would mean.
Keep up to date with what's going on in your area by entering your postcode below
"I've spent so long walking around town seeing families, seeing mums and dads and two children and thinking 'why do they get my life and I don't get my life?'
"And taking my daughter to school and dropping off. It's always having to be me at the moment.
"I know it's going to be hard work when he comes home, but we're just desperate to have him there.
"That's why we need so much money, to set up the house in a such a way that he can get upstairs, get into the kids bedrooms, read them a bedtime story, bath them and all the stuff he should be doing as a 40-year-old man, rather than him having to be confined to one room downstairs.
"It's been three and a half years. The kids have spent more time with him not at home than they have with him at home."
Donations to Andrew's GoFundMe page can be made HERE.
Over £20,000 has now been raised of the £50,000 target needed to modify the house to allow Andrew to return home.
A further £4,686 has been raised by six-year-old Luc Holladay, the son of Andrew's cousin.
As part of his fundraising challenge, Luc ran a marathon over the course of a week, almost four miles a day.
On the idea for Luc to run a marathon, Katie said: "His dad's a runner as well.
"I think because of Covid, and they're so far away down in Bath, they haven't been able to come up for over a year to visit us.
"I think they just felt kind of helpless down there and didn't know what they could do.
"They were having a think and Mike is a keen runner and he thought there's no point me running because it's not special enough.
"Just before Easter he ran a marathon in sub-three hours, so he's an incredible runner.
"Then Luc said he likes running and he wanted to do something and they came up with this idea.
"Luc said he wants to run a marathon and they thought probably at the age of six we'll need to spread it out! "He's done amazingly well and he's really enjoyed it as well. He was really excited by it.
"It's nice that there's that symmetry because Andrew ran five marathons in total before his surgery."
