Ex-soldier battles brain tumour to marry his beloved
AN EX-SOLDIER is set to marry the love of his life a year after being told by doctors he would not survive long enough to say “I do”.
Cai Keehan shocked his fiancee Pamela Teehan after he started dribbling from the side of his mouth during a FaceTime call to her from his private security job near Basra, Iraq, in March last year.
Thousands of miles away in Bargoed, south Wales, she worried when he said he’d also been experiencing tingling in his face. She urged her 32-year-old fiance to seek medical help.
“I knew there was something wrong by the way he was talking,” trainee dental nurse Pamela said.
“He started to dribble down one side of his face and said it had gone numb.”
The desperate situation was the start of 12 months of hell for the healthy, active couple, who both played rugby for their local teams in Caerphilly.
Taking Pamela’s advice, the former Welsh Guards soldier went to the doctor.
At this stage, everybody just thought it was a severe headache caused by dehydration.
But then when he suffered a seizure two days later, he was immediately flown to the nearest large hospital in Dubai on a private plane.
There, Cai received a series of scans which revealed a shadow on his brain.
Next, he was flown back to the UK, where doctors at a Cardiff hospital diagnosed him with a grade four tumour.
They also broke the news that, due to its location in his brain, surgeons were unable to perform an operation – meaning he was given just a year to live.
Engaged since 2013, Cai decided to marry Pamela as soon as possible.
Now back in his home town of Bargoed, Gwent, south Wales, he says he is feeling strong, and juggling wedding plans with sessions of chemotherapy.
The couple, who have been together for 13 years after meeting in a bar and have a 10-year-old son, Christian, will marry on Easter Saturday (April 15) at a register office in Caerphilly in front of around 150 guests.
Christian will be involved in the ceremony as a pageboy.
Their reception has been organised by Deri Rugby Football Club and will be held in its clubhouse nearby.
Both former Deri players, the decor at the reception will be black and gold to match the team colours.
The coach’s wife, Debbie Roberts, has also set up a JustGiving page on behalf of the club to raise £10,000 towards the possible £30,000 needed to fund proton therapy treatment for