George Wade started experiencing symptoms after enjoying a boozy day at Cheltenham
George Wade with Jonathan Wade
A marathon runner has told how he was diagnosed with two brain tumours – one being the size of a tennis ball – after mistaking his symptoms for a hangover. George Wade, 42, started experiencing symptoms after enjoying a boozy day at the Cheltenham races, in Gloucestershire, with friends in March last year.
But on the drive home back to Thirsk, North Yorkshire, he began to suffer a severe headache, memory loss, and also said he ‘felt sick’ when looking at cars’ headlights. George – who had run 20 marathons over the past 15 years – symptoms passed until a month later in April he suffered what he thought was a stroke when the left side of his body became weak and face began drooping.
Following a number tests which came back all clear his brother-in-law, Dr Caspar Wood, booked him in for a precautionary MRI scan which discovered two brain tumours. The auction software engineer has since been through a eight-hour debulking surgery and spent six months on chemotherapy pills and now requires an MRI scan every three months which checks for any growth.
He is currently fundraising for charity raising money through auctioning painted Gavels through The Gavel Trail and Auction he is leading through the Bidpath Foundation. George said: “When I was told my diagnosis, it was a shock, I honestly felt helpless and that I was done for. I was thinking to myself ‘how do you survive with two brain tumours?’.
George Wade’s surgery scar
“Last year was a conveyer belt of treatment. I suffered a weird psychosis as a side-effect of the steroids they put me on. It was like an out-of-body experience that was pretty scary.”
Following the migraine and nausea when returning back from Cheltenham, George said his symptoms passed and continued as normal even going on a skiing trip to Austria two weeks later and showing no symptoms.
But on April 14, George suffered stroke like symptoms after struggling to pick up a fork and dropping it on the floor before his wife Ellie noticed the left side of his face drooping. George said: “Ellie called Caspar, who assumed it may be a stroke.
“The following day he arranged for me to have a blood and eye test which came back all clear and he assured me I was fine. He said just to be safe he would get me an MRI scan on April 18 which I went to he assured me again it was just precaution and they most likely wouldn’t find anything. It was just to rule it out basically.”
George in hospital
But after completing the scan, George remembers seeing the “body language” of the nurses change and he was told a consultant would be coming to see him. While waiting George said he had accepted that he may have a brain tumour.
He said: ” I was told I have two brain tumours – a large one on the right side of my head which was described as the size of a tennis ball and another smaller one the size of a squash ball in the middle.
“I was later told the bigger one might have been growing for 20 years and only now it has gotten so big it was pushing my brain and causing symptoms.”
George was first sent to Northallerton Hospital, North Yorks., where he was given steroid pills to try and reduce the size of the tumours. Following a biopsy surgery in early May he was diagnosed with two grade 2 astrocytoma tumours.
Astrocytomas are a common type of brain tumours in both adults and children and develop from cells called astrocytes, according to Cancer Research UK.
Then, in early June, George travelled down to London to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery where he underwent a eight hour debulking surgery which removed 95 per cent of his large brain tumour.
No surgery was done on his smaller tumour. Following the surgery George was determined to get back on his feet and began walking just two days after and went for his first run after a month.
After further testing, his larger tumour was diagnosed to stage four – fast growing and aggressive – due to a mutation – yet he currently told it is acting like a stage two which is slow growing.
George’s two brain tumours
Then, a month later in July, he started six months of chemotherapy in pill form until December which further reduced the size of his tumours. George said: “The chemotherapy pills were big doses for five days each month and then a rest.
“Luckily I wasn’t too ill with it until the last set of pills as the effects mount up month by month which is why I felt worse at the end. Though when I first starting taking them the skin on my hands starting peeling off which was a strange side effect.
“I feel so lucky I live in 2025, not 1980. The chemotherapy I had last year came in the form of pills so I could take them at home, and I had anti-sickness pills to go with them, so things were a lot easier than they would have been 40 years ago.”
George has also undergone three plastic surgeries on his skull to remove a skin infection which was discovered in August following the debulking surgery. He has had six surgeries on his skull and brain in the last 14 months.
He also requires MRI scans every three months to check and monitor for growth. George said: “I was lucky that I had a MRI scan as frustrating as it is that I have these brain tumours at least I know and we caught them when we did as it could have been a lot worse.
“In many ways I feel fitter and healthier than I have ever been after what’s happened. A nutritionist put me on a special diet, and I lost a lot of weight. My brother-in-law is a GP and said there is nothing wrong with your heart, so get running again.”
George Wade post-marathon
The runner has already raised almost £50,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity and the National Brain Appeal when running the London Marathon in a personal best of 3 hours and 16 minutes earlier this year.
But now he is continuing his fundraising journey, looking to reach a total of £100,000 by the end of this year with the The Gavel Trail and Auction. He is leading it through the Bidpath Foundation that was setup by George’s employers following his diagnosis alongside international arts trail creators Wild In Art.
Auctioneers from across the UK and even overseas – many of whom know George well – are sponsoring the fundraiser by commissioning an artist to design and decorate a blank gavel and block. Each artwork is one metre long.
Each auction house will display its gavel throughout September and October, creating an art trail. An auction will take place in the Surveyors House at RICS Westminster, London. Pre-bidding online is open.
George said: “I am looking forward to visiting many of the gavels at auction houses and I am particularly looking forward to visiting Halls auctioneers as they were the first auction house I worked for.”
You can bid here: https://bidpath.wildinartauctions.com/