FIGHT TO RAISE CASH FOR CANCER TREATMENT ‘Tumour left me paralysed but I’m determined to take Katie-Jo down the aisle’
A FORMER cricketer is battling to make it up the aisle to marry his sweetheart after a rare tumour left him paralysed.
Adam Cuthbert, 31, had “the perfect life” until February 2016 when he woke with pain in his side and weakness in his legs.
Doctors swiftly operated after finding a growth in his spinal cord and were confident he would make a full recovery.
Elated, Adam proposed to girlfriend Katie-Jo Flynn, 30, and they began planning for a ceremony this August near their families’ homes in Wolverhampton.
But seven months later the pain returned and he went back under the knife twice more.
The final surgery, to drain a cyst on the tumour, left his right leg paralysed.
Then, during two months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he lost all mobility from the waist down.
Adam, former captain of Wolverhampton Cricket Club, said: “You don’t realise how perfect life is until it just flips. My world has been turned upside down.
“Life had been going great, I’d just been promoted at work, so had Katie-Jo, we were getting married.
“Looking back, I never wanted to want to win the lottery, I just want that life back again.”
Adam’s tumour continues to grow and could spread to the rest of his body.
Conventional treatments have only slowed it down so Katie-Jo has taken a break from her job in PR to hunt for alternatives.
She said: “Adam has been my best friend since I was 14 years old so life without him just isn’t an option.
“That’s why I spend every spare minute researching new treatments, clinical trials and complementary therapies.
“We know there are other routes out there – it’s just about finding them. I refuse to believe there isn’t someone out there in the world who can help him.” The pair, who live in London, have decided not to splash out on a lavish wedding and instead put their money into treatment.
They have moved into a new wheelchair-accessible flat with space for the physiotherapy equipment they rent to keep Adam’s muscles from wasting.
Now Adam is facing the challenge of his life as he hopes to make it down the aisle when the pair tie the knot at a quiet registry office wedding next month.
The couple have launched a fund raising campaign to help with medical costs, with Adam’s cricket pals planning a programme of events for the former bowler.
So far, friends and family have given £21,500 to help fund treatments such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, neurological activitybased rehabilitation, physio and private consultations.
Adam added: “We’re cracking on. We have a cry and a bit of a whinge now and again but mostly we’re focused and
positive.”