Despite being told at first that the mass wasn’t “sinister”, Gary and his wife, Lizzy, received the daunting diagnosis of stage four bowel cancer after the operation.
The cancer had spread to his omentum, the fatty tissue that starts in the stomach and drapes over the intestines, and surrounding lymph nodes.
Gary was then given chemotherapy for six months but the treatment didn’t work.
Zoe Welsh, Gary’s sister, who set up a GoFundMe page for him, penned: “We were given the news no one ever wants to hear – his cancer was now incurable and he has the aggressive BRAF mutation.”
A BRAF mutation describes a spontaneous change in the BRAF gene that leaves certain cells continuously dividing without any instructions on when to stop, leading to the development of tumours.
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