Tom Parker’s widow, Kelsey Parker, has called for the NHS to increase funding to support and find a cure for those with brain tumours.
In a moving interview with GBNews Kelsey said it was wrong that so little funding is dedicated to this area.
She also explained how changes she made to Tom’s life helped him live 18 months – when nurses thought he’d only survive three weeks.
Speaking to GBNews she said: “There’s no magic wand, but it’s so underfunded. It’s the biggest killer to children and under 40s adults yet it gets 1% of funding.
“On this journey that I’m on I have met parents that I talked to that have lost children.“Until I became involved, I had no clue about the level of funding. Obviously after that I was like, ‘why is that going to get 1% of funding?’ I think maybe the brain protects us so much. Not a lot goes over the blood brain barrier. “
Recalling Tom’s battle she said: “Tom had time. We got Tom time. When he did pass, his nurse Tom never had a prognosis. Tom was not that sort of person. I said ‘don’t give him the prognosis, because he’s going to be ticking off on the calendar’. But actually, when he did pass away, his specialist nurses said to me they’d have only given him three weeks. first saw him.
“We gave him 18 months but we had to do a lot of funding. I had to do a lot of research. You know, we did a lot of stuff.
“The charity that I raise a lot of money for Ahead of the Game is giving people support, and advice on diets and other stuff that the NHS don’t give you. They don’t talk about it. You go home, you have a booklet and you go home and that’s it. You then get sent on your way . I had to study and knowledge is king when you’re in something like that.
“We did everything we could for Tom. I mean if they told me to hop down the street on one leg, I would have done that for Tom. There was no rock that I didn’t overturn. We did everything, you know, even oxygen chamber getting the oxygen, changes to his diet, looking at the level sugar because sugar is not great for you if you have cancer, and we changed his diet. I looked really into alternative treatments. Homeopathy. It is actually quite funny because Tom and I had been together since he was 19. And Tom was the boss. He loved research, politics, he loved everything, he loved science. But actually he took the backseat and he was just like okay let’s do it. I’m doing a charity football match on Sunday, Father’s Day, to celebrate Tom and raise awareness because obviously for me, I feel like I’ve been given this platform and I need to raise awareness.”