I don’t know how long I have left.. but I’m helping people and that makes me happy
Boss hails brave charity worker
A Latvian man diagnosed with a rare bone cancer is spending his final days helping hard-up Scots.
Gunars Vasiluks found out he had a terminal illness just six months after getting married in June 2014.
Since then, the 26-year-old has been helping struggling Scots get out of, or avoid, fuel poverty.
Although he has mobility problems and sight loss in one eye, Gunars travels from his home in Glasgow’s Govan to his office in the city centre, which has been specially adapted.
Gunars works for Social Enterprise Direct, a revenuegenerating arm of charity Advice Direct Scotland.
He said: “It’s the best job in the world. You get paid for making the world look better.”
Gunars’ problems started with blurry vision at the end of 2015. Soon after, he began getting headaches and started vomiting. A scan showed a large calcified mass in his head.
Gunars said: “There was no need for a biopsy. I was told they could do surgery which had a 95 per cent success rate.”
But when he woke from surgery, he couldn’t lift his left arm or leg and has lost the vision in his right eye. Since then, Gunars has learned to walk again but has decided not to have any more surgery. He said: “When I wake up, I remember my illness. But when I started volunteering, it was like meditation. Now, I concentrate on what I’m doing and have no time to overthink things. I go home happy and this takes my mind away from things.” Gunars doesn’t know how long he has left to live but he and his wife Maria Brusyanina, 26, are hoping for a miracle. He said: “The oncologist told me there are options but there are risks associated with them. No matter what they do, sooner or later it’s going to get me. “The cartilage at the base of my skull is growing into my brain. Although it’s not a brain tumour, it does everything a brain tumour does.”
Maria, originally from Siberia, has been living in Scotland since she was 16. A care worker for people with disabilities, she assists Gunars.
She said: “His diagnosis was one of the darkest moments of my life. I couldn’t believe it. It’s so unfair and shouldn’t happen.
“What brings Gunars a lot of happiness is doing anything to help others – it moves the focus away from himself. If something makes others feel good, it makes him very happy.”
Af ter surgery left Gunars partial ly paralysed, he was directed to Social Enterprise Direct, a prof it- generating subsidiary of Advice Direct Scotland. He began as a volunteer and has since become a paid member of staff.
Advice Direct Scotland’s chief Andrew Bartlett said: “Never once has Gunars complained or taken time off ill. He’s a popular member of the team and if there’s anything we can do to help him, we will.”