Kieran Shingler’s girlfriend told him to go to A&E after he lost his appetite and a Covid test came back negative – then doctors saw something shocking on his CT scan
A man who assumed he caught the flu, but found out it was actually a deadly condition, has tragically died in a hospice.
Kieran Shingler, 26, started getting headaches, a sore throat and runny nose on Bonfire Night in 2022. The young man initially thought he caught the flu or Covid-19 and was not alarmed. A coronavirus test for Kieran and his partner Abbie Henstock, 27, came back negative but the man called doctors when his appetite disappeared and didn’t come back.
Kieran, a HGV driver, was told to visit Warrington Hospital, Cheshire, where they first thought he might have meningitis. But a CT scan later uncovered a mass in the young man’s brain.
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He was subsequently moved to the Walton Centre, Liverpool, and after four procedures, including a biopsy, doctors saw he had a grade three astrocytoma, an aggressive cancerous growth. Kieran underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments which started to reduce the tumour, but despite this a scan in the summer revealed it had started to grow again.
Kieran was sent to Liverpool for further treatment but he tragically died in a Warrington hospice earlier this month, according to the Liverpool Echo. Paying tribute to Kieran, Abbie said: “He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was so cheeky, he was always playing pranks on his family or friends, or winding people up.
“He was such a family man as well and had a good group of friends around him. He was so chilled. He was so funny and gentle – he had that dry sense of humour. He was such a good lad.”
Kieran, from Warrington, had kept healthy and active until he started feeling ill in 2022. Abbie said: “He just had headaches. I remember he was on Sudafed for like a week and it wasn’t really clearing. He was into his triathlons and he was so fit and healthy. He loved going out on his bike.
“He’d do a 10 hour shift at work and then come home and do a swim session. The headaches were putting him off training. He was such a foodie as well. He wasn’t eating, so that’s when we took him to the doctors who then immediately said, you need to go to A&E.”
Although doctors initially thought he had meningitis they later noticed the cancerous growth in his brain. According to The Brain Tumour Charity, headaches are one of the most common symptoms of a brain tumour. Up to 60% of people living with a brain tumour will develop headaches at some point.
The headaches are not caused directly by the tumour itself. This is because the brain has no pain receptors. They’re caused by a build-up of pressure on pain-sensitive blood vessels and nerves within the brain. A reduced appetite is also common for people with brain tumours.
Kieran, in December 2022, was told he had 12 months to live but the brave man surpassed that. The couple started a fundraising page called Kieran’s Krew, which had collected more than £27,000 for various brain tumour charities, including the Brain Tumour Charity. The young man’s health eventually worsened and he sadly died on December 14, with posts online from Kieran’s Krew about the news leading to hundreds of messages of condolences.
Abbie said: “I can’t go through the replies yet, but I’ve seen how many people it’s reached and the amount of messages that we’re all getting. It’s so nice to know that we’re all helping other people through dark times. We knew it was going to happen, we just didn’t know when.
“We were fortunate and lucky enough to have two extra years with him. But people who are first diagnosed now, they might see his story and think, oh, there is a chance.” Abbie said she wants to continue raising money for various causes, including St. Rocco’s Hospice in Warrington, where Kieran spent his final days.
