Adi’s story
Adi never let his illness get him down or stop him from living the life that he wanted to lead. As he always said, the illness will live with him and not the other way around. Adi’s passion was motorbikes, music and his family. He lived every day like it was his last: laughing, joking and doing all he could to ensure that his family had the future he felt that we deserved.
He grew up in Lincoln, with his dad and three sisters. He worked at Green’s engineering for many years and in 2002 set up his own business called ATG Services which was a great success. However, this all changed on 5th September 2004 when Adi was hit head on by a car causing horrific injuries and the female driver admitting fault.
After several weeks in hospital he was allowed back home with his family. The following two years was taken up by speech therapy, physiotherapy and numerous visits to the GP where he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, placed on anti-depressants and was offered counselling in which he tried but found that nothing was coming of this. He also found that the headaches and blurred vision continued. Despite this, he still continued with his life but unfortunately could not continue with his business and chose to stay at home to bring up his children whilst I went in to full time employment.
“29/01/1966 a champion was born, on the 30/08/2013 a legend fell asleep.”
Whilst having a family holiday in Spain, Adi’s personality changed. He seemed to get agitated quickly which was completely out of character as he was always so laid back. He seemed to get tired rapidly and his headaches became unbearable and his speech was slurred, he continued to try and make the most of the holiday for his family as this was an important holiday for him as we was joined by his older children and family. On June 1st 2006 as we were about to depart from the hotel Adi had a unexpected seizure and was taken straight in to intensive care where he remained for the next 8 days, during this time he had several head scans which become enlightened that after his RTA in 2004 a head scan was never done, only a body scan was performed. He was then moved to a private room for 3 days where they ensured that he was stable enough to fly. He was then flown back to England with medical staff on board and transferred to Sheffield hospital where our lives were changed forever as Adi was diagnosed with a rare grade three astrocytoma.
Despite being told that it was a terminal illness and that his life expectancy was months, he continued to be the family man that he always was. We were then invited to attend a meeting with consultants and surgeons who offered Adi an operation to remove part of the tumour which could go either way. Adi accepted this offer after great consideration of his five children: Kerah, Kraig, Kerrie, Aiden and Alison and knowing that he had my full support as we was always in this together from start to finish. 5cm of the tumour was removed and life expectancy was now looking brighter. Unfortunately, a year later the tumour had grown back and Adi then had radiotherapy followed by two lots of different types of chemotherapy. His life expectancy was then a grey area nevertheless; he never let this get him down and he continued to live his life how he wanted, knowing that each day together was a bonus, like he used to say “his life was on an extension lead”.
In October 2012 Adi lost his memory for five weeks where he was sent for an emergency scan. Then on January 3rd 2013 we got the devastating news that the tumour had spread. I gave up work and then became his full time career, on the 27th of August we took Adi to his favourite place, Skegness, for what became the last family break as on the 30th August 2013 at 5:25pm he fell asleep in the arms of myself and his two youngest children, where his new journey now begins with Adi’s mission to help others.
The Adi’s Mission Fund
This fund has been set up to help raise vital funds to support The Brain Tumour Charity to continue with their research, information, awareness and policy. Adi was always one to go out of his way to help others and we want to carry on his legacy in the form of Adi’s mission.
If you wish to follow Adi’s Mission then please feel free to join our page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ADISMISSIONFUND