Daniel Peedle has been fundraising for UHB Charity after what he describes as “receiving the most incredible care” at the QE when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour back in 2014.
Daniel underwent an 11-hour surgery in which two-thirds was removed. The other third couldn’t be taken out. He endured another 6 surgeries between October 2014 and November 2015 due to having a shunt and some complications that followed. During this period, Daniel spent a total of 150 days at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital which he describes as “the most amazing care.”
When asked if he had any warning signs, Daniel said, “I had always suffered from headaches and migraines but so did my biological father so we had always put it down to it being hereditary. In the summer of 2014, we went to America and while I was there, I had been suffering from headaches but also with blurred vision. Again, we put that down to jet lag. When we came back from America, the blurred vision didn’t stop so I went to have an eye test on Friday 26th September 2014. They found that I has a swollen nerve at the back of my eye or as we later learnt a papilledema.
They said this is due to a build-up of pressure behind the eye and that I need to go to the hospital right away. I went straight away to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton. They did some tests and told me to come back in the morning. After a day of tests, they told us they had found something on my CT scan and they had been talking to the neurosurgery team at the QE and that I should prepare for surgery. I was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here in Birmingham at 2 am on Sunday. I had a biopsy a few days later and then they confirmed it was a Benign Pilocytic Astrocytoma. The papilledema was caused by the tumour obstructing the fluid draining from my brain.”
Unfortunately, the tumour came back again in 2017, after a few years of stability. Daniel was sent to Florida and had 6 weeks of Proton Radiation. He said, “It was a big shock when I had learnt it had grown as I had just started to plan what I was going to do in the future, however, the fact they were sending me to Florida softened the blow a bit.”
When asked what advice he would give to those who have just been diagnosed with a brain tumour, Daniel said, “Talk to people! I made the mistake of thinking I was the only person going through what I was going through and kept a lot of my thoughts and feelings inside. There are many great charities that can put you in touch with similarly aged people who are going through the exact same experience. This has helped me so much and given me friends for life!”
Daniel added, “When I was in hospital my main motivation was family and home. The thought of being back at home in my own bed around family kept me going through the tough times. My friends and family have also been amazing throughout this which has helped massively. The staff were amazing and made my staff as easy and as comfortable as possible. The food wasn’t too bad either! I can’t think of anything I would improve.”
Because of the amazing care he received, Daniel has set himself a goal of fundraising for four charities that played a huge part in his journey. UHB Charity is one of them.
Daniel set himself a target of raising £2,021 which he has already surpassed! Over the next 12 months, he is taking part in a range of fundraisers to raise more funds. Most recently he climbed Snowdon.
