‘We were fortunate and lucky enough to have two extra years with him’
Tributes: Kieran Shingler(Image: UGC)
A man died after he started getting severe headaches and losing his appetite. Kieran Shingler, 26, started feeling unwell on Bonfire Night 2022 but the symptoms were not alarming, with both him and his long-term partner Abbie Henstock, 27, initially believing he had Covid-19.
After a test proved negative, both of them then thought that he just “had the flu”. It was only when Kieran’s appetite disappeared and didn’t come back that they contacted the doctors. He was soon sent to Liverpool for further treatment but he died in a Warrington hospice earlier this month.
Paying tribute to Kieran, Abbie told the ECHO: “He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was so cheeky, he was always playing pranks on his family or friends, or winding people up.
“He was such a family man as well and had a good group of friends around him. He was so chilled. He was so funny and gentle – he had that dry sense of humour. He was such a good lad.”
Kieran, who was from Warrington, kept healthy and active but started feeling unwell in November 2022. Abbie, who is also from the Cheshire town, said: “He just had headaches. I remember he was on Sudafed for like a week and it wasn’t really clearing.
“He was into his triathlons and he was so fit and healthy. He loved going out on his bike. He’d do a 10 hour shift at work and then come home and do a swim session. The headaches were putting him off training.
Kieran Shingler and Abbie Henstock(Image: Liverpool Echo/Abbie Henstock)
“He was such a foodie as well. He wasn’t eating, so that’s when we took him to the doctors who then immediately said, you need to go to A&E.”
Doctors then thought Kieran might have meningitis, but a CT scan uncovered a mass in his brain. Kieran was subsequently moved to the Walton Centre in Liverpool, where he underwent four procedures, including a biopsy. This showed he had a grade three astrocytoma, an aggressive cancerous growth, reports The Echo.
Kieran then received radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, which began reducing the tumour, but his latest scan revealed it had begun expanding once more. According to The Brain Tumour Charity, headaches are one of the most common symptoms of a brain tumour. Up to 60% of people living with a brain tumour will develop headaches at some point.
The headaches are not caused directly by the tumour itself. This is because the brain has no pain receptors. They’re actually caused by a build-up of pressure on pain-sensitive blood vessels and nerves within the brain. A reduced appetite is also common among those with brain tumours.
Abbie said: “It didn’t feel real. I remember his mum calling me, saying he’s got a mass in his brain. Then we were just thrown into this world, but at this point we didn’t know it was cancer. “We were just thinking, oh, it’s just something on his brain, whether it’s a blood clot or something that’s not that vicious. But then obviously it spiralled.”
By December 2022, doctors had told Kieran’s family that his tumour meant he only had 12 months to live. Abbie said: “I remember that day (when we were told). We were in the room with his mum and dad and we just screamed. “I focus on dates and times, so I was getting really fixated on ‘but you don’t know when it will come’, so I had to learn not to think like that.
“But because he was doing so well, you had to train yourself to live it day by day because he was so cheeky and smiley. He did so well after his surgeries.
“I remember after his fourth surgery, he wanted to go out for a run and we were like, no way. But he just wanted to fight it. He wanted to do it. He was so determined.”
During this time, Kieran’s bond with Liverpool FC and the city as a whole grew even stronger. Abbie said: “He’s met the Liverpool players, he met (Jurgen) Klopp when he was manager. After his radiotherapy finished in 2023, we got a box at Anfield to watch the derby. He got an award from The Guide Liverpool and we managed to go to that just before he got really ill. For his job, he delivered alcohol and drinks in Liverpool, so we know the city. A charity gave us an overnight stay in the Titanic Hotel. We love the city.”
The pair established the online fundraising page Kieran’s Krew. Kieran, alongside his family and friends, collected more than £27,000 for various brain tumour charities, including the Brain Tumour Charity.
This meant Kieran’s story spread far and wide. Abbie said: “I don’t think he realised how many people actually knew until earlier this year when someone came up to him and said, are you Kieran from Kieran’s Krew? Sometimes we were stopped in the shop and people said, you’re so inspiring.”
Kieran’s health eventually worsened though. He died on Sunday December 14, with posts online from Kieran’s Krew about the news leading to hundreds of messages of condolences. Abbie said: “I can’t go through the replies yet, but I’ve seen how many people it’s reached and the amount of messages that we’re all getting. It’s so nice to know that we’re all helping other people through dark times. We knew it was going to happen, we just didn’t know when.
“We were fortunate and lucky enough to have two extra years with him. But people who are first diagnosed now, they might see his story and think, oh, there is a chance.”
Abbie wants to continue raising money for various causes, including St. Rocco’s Hospice in Warrington where Kieran spent his final days. Abbie said: “We just want to continue his legacy and always keep his name alive. He’ll never be forgotten, he’ll always be with us, but we want to continue sharing his journey. We want to continue to help other people going through a brain tumor diagnosis. I speak to so many people who’ve lost a partner or a son or a wife or whoever, and relating to those people helps me so much.”