Glenn Campbell: ‘I feel lucky – despite brain cancer diagnosis’
BBC Scotland political editor Glenn Campbell has told how he has been diagnosed with incurable brain cancer – but insists he is “as lucky as someone in my position can be”.
Campbell said: “I do have an incurable brain cancer. It is almost certainly what will kill me, but I am optimistic that need not happen for a long time yet. I have a rare tumour called an oligodendroglioma, which tends to respond better to treatment than many other types.”
He underwent successful surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, with Campbell saying neurosurgeon Paul Brennan and his team managed to remove “almost all” of the tumour without damaging healthy brain tissue.
When the cancer type was confirmed after “a few weeks” wait, he said: “I was lucky. About as lucky as someone in my position can be.”
In an article for the BBC, Campbell, who revealed he was diagnosed with brain cancer in August last year, said the “hardest thing” had been telling his children Cameron, 20, and Katie, 17, what was happening to him. “Getting through that without breaking down was a relief,” he admitted. “I was surprised to discover that I am not afraid of dying. It turns out my biggest fear is FOMO – the fear of missing out. Missing out on growing old with my wife. Missing out on seeing my children complete their journeys into adulthood. Missing out on their graduations, weddings and the arrival of any children they might have.”
The journalist spent several days in hospital in Edinburgh in June last year after coming off his bike in an accident that saw him break ten ribs. He told how six weeks later, while recovering at home, he woke clutching his arm, suffering from a “strong burning sensation” and “could not walk or talk coherently”. Campbell recalled: “Involuntarily, I bit down hard on my tongue and started bleeding from my mouth. At first my wife, Claire, thought I was having a stroke. It turned out I was having an epileptic fit or seizure.” Paramedics took him to hospital and it was then that an MRI scan revealed a tumour on the right-hand side of his brain. Since then he has had 33 “blasts” of radiotherapy treatment, along with chemotherapy, which he started before Christmas.
Campbell says he has “remained healthy and active” throughout, having been able to “keep working, keep walking my dog and climb a few mountains”. However, he said radiotherapy has been “very tiring” while chemotherapy leaves him “nauseous and fatigued”.
But he added: “If this phase of my treatment is successful, it should be possible to keep my tumour in check for some years to come. Instead of worrying about dying from brain cancer, I see the potential for it to give me a new lease of life.”
The journalist also said he had started a “fundraising community called Brain Power to raise money for the charity Brain Tumour Research”. Explaining that brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer in children and adults under 40, he added: “I am for defying the odds and for trying to improve them for the brain tumour patients that come after me.”