An Afghan war veteran found out he had a deadly brain tumour after he threw all of his wife's socks in the bin amid lapses in his memory despite being just 29.
James Flint's wife Nicola thought he had been sleep walking, but the next day there was cause for concern after he couldn't remember the three-hour drive he had been on.
A month later, in April 2015, she found him having a seizure on the floor at their home in Plymouth, Devon, and rushed him to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a 5.7cm tumour in his brain.
The couple named the tumour "Kenneth", which was in the former soldier's right frontal lobe and was removed during surgery at Derriford Hospital three months later, PlymouthLive reports.
James then began gruelling treatment which included radiotherapy and chemotherapy daily for six weeks.
He even had a course of chemotherapy while he was in Malta for his wedding in 2016.
However, an MRI last December showed a recurrence of cancer and that tumour, named "Kenneth Jnr", was removed in March this year.
James, a politics lecturer at the University of Plymouth, and Nicola are now desperately trying to raise funds for alternative therapy to help him beat the disease.
Nicola wrote: "This time around hasn’t all been plain sailing though.
"Post-surgery James lost use of his left side, thankfully significantly recovered, and the pathology results show that the cancer has advanced to a Grade 4 Glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive type of brain cancer.
"The news has been devastating to us. Glioblastoma has a shocking prognosis, with the average survival from first diagnosis being just 12-15 months.
"As James received radiotherapy back in 2015, it is no longer a viable treatment option for him without the risk of significant harm. Alarmingly, the April post-op MRI has revealed regrowth already."
James, who served with The Rifles, has raised more than £12,000 towards his £55,000 target.
On the GoFundMe page, Nicola wrote: "We cannot believe what we are facing, and the recent Covid lockdown has made things even harder to process.
"My James is witty, intelligent, kind-hearted and fiercely loyal.
"He is a veteran of Afghanistan, serving with The Rifles, as part of 3 Commando Brigade (on Operation Herrick 9), and an accomplished associate lecturer in International Relations and Politics at the University of Plymouth."
She added: "We are at the start of our married lives and careers, but instead we are seeking every possible treatment option we can.
"When James was first diagnosed he told me that the two important things on his bucket-list were to make me happy and to complete his PhD.
"He has achieved both of those things, but at just 34 years old he has so much more to give and to live for."
James currently undergoes chemotherapy every month on the NHS, but glioblastoma is notoriously resistant to such treatments.
His wife wrote: "He is also undertaking various private treatment protocols, including supplements and repurposed drugs which are thought to disrupt the metabolic makeup of the cancer cells, which we access through the Care Oncology Clinic in London.
"We are now seeking immunotherapy treatment options to keep James alive and well for as long as we can. As this treatment isn’t currently approved by NICE in the UK, we will have to fund the treatment ourselves, and travel to Germany regularly.
"We hope to have tumour sequencing analysis carried out at the CeGaT clinic in Tuebingen, with a personalised treatment created which will hopefully give James a better chance in any rematch with Kenneth III.
"A second line of treatment, provided by IOZK (again in Germany) is DCVax (Dendritic Cell Vaccine). Early indications show these treatments to hold fantastic promise for extending survival rates."
Click here to donate to James' fundraiser. Any leftover funds will be donated to Brain Tumour Research.
