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Craig McIvor, 35, was diagnosed with a grade two Glioblastoma in January 2019 and the chemotherapy left him infertile – but he and his wife now have a miracle baby
An ex-marine has shared how he stayed awake during brain surgery to cut away a cancerous brain tumour and prolong his life.
Craig McIvor, 35, was diagnosed with a grade two Glioblastoma in January 2019 after experiencing seizures. He says he is “so grateful” to the advances in medicine that have enabled him to stay alive and become a father despite chemotherapy leaving him infertile.
Although Craig’s brain cancer is incurable the tumour has remained stable since his last surgery in September 2020 and he hasn’t needed any further treatment. Craig who lives in Chudleigh, Devon, with his wife, Hannah and their eight-month-old son, Hugo, said: “I started having seizures when I was 29 in July 2018.
“I wasn’t having black out seizures, but seizures where I literally couldn’t concentrate and intake words during conversations. I was 29 years old and single and I stupidly ignored them for several months before it increased from one episode a week, to several in a day.”
When Craig saw the doctor they originally thought it was going to be epilepsy. But after multiple tests Craig underwent an MRI which showed a brain tumour. He said: “The news was horrifying to me and my family because we’d lost my mum to a brain tumour in 2008 when I was 19. My dad and brother were hit quite hard. The tumour was in the same place as mum’s was, 10 years earlier. That was a lot to take in.”
Craig was scheduled into emergency surgery the day after his 30th birthday in February 2019. He said: “I was put to sleep as they peeled back my skin and cut a large bit of my skull off, they then woke me up as they removed sections of my tumour to make sure I was still okay, reacting and talking.
“Once they had removed all they could they put me back to sleep, screwed my skull back in and stapled my skin back together. After the surgery only fragments of the tumour remained and I went through six weeks of radiotherapy and 12 months of chemotherapy that left me infertile.
“I lost a lot of weight and my hair during the chemo too.” Craig was classed as clinically ill during Covid and had to isolate. In that time he had started a relationship with his future wife, Hannah, 35. Craig said: “We met years and years before we got together, at the gym and were in different relationships.
“It was only when we both separated and divorced from our previous partners that we swapped numbers. Hannah was an amazing support to me while I had chemo and had to be isolated. When lockdown happened I asked her to move in with me so we could spend time getting to know each other better.
“Luckily we got on very well and started to class ourselves as a couple. It wasn’t too long before we told each other how much we loved each other. Then I got halfway through chemo and the doctors noticed the tumour was still growing regardless so they put me in for a second brain surgery on September 29 2020. Now I am checked with an MRI every 6 months, and I’ve not been touched since.”
On August 11 2022 Craig proposed to Hannah while they were out walking on Dartmoor and the couple married in the Maldives on September 8 2022. That October the couple started IVF to conceive using Craig’s pre-chemotherapy samples.
And after two failed cycles Hannah fell pregnant with a little boy, Hugo, who was born on April 13 this year weighing 6.6lbs. Craig said: “Hannah and I had a really long discussion about going through IVF, if the brain tumour was ever to come back strong, Hannah would be solo. We said he has been completely worth the gamble.”
Craig also grew a ponytail when his hair grew back after chemotherapy and the hairdressers were closed because of lockdown. For four years he grew his hair “as long as possible” until July this year when he chopped it all off, donating 18 inches of his hair to the Little Princess Trust.
He raised over £1,400 for the children’s cancer charity that makes wigs for patients. Craig said: “I was very nervous obviously after growing it for four years, but when I was thinking about whether I wanted to get it cut or not, I saw The Little Princess Trust, and I thought I would much rather see someone who needed it have my long hair.
On July 27 he underwent the chop at Room Twenty Two in Ashburton with hairdresser Samantha Kearney who kindly did it for free. Craig said: “I had a few people say they were jealous about my hair and how lush it was, but it wasn’t enough for me to keep it. About half way through I really did start regretting it all and was nervous. But when it was finally finished, I didn’t regret it at all.
“With my current job working as a hospital porter I have experienced people, including children, who are going through similar treatments that I went through. My thoughts are always with them. I’m really proud to help in my own small way. And I’m so grateful to modern technology and how things have developed because if this had happened 30 odd years ago, I don’t think Hugo or I would be here.
“When we have bad days now we do bring up the past when the circumstances were a lot worse in comparison and reflect on how far we have come.”
