Adam Glover, 31, and his wife, Katie, 26, were married in April last year. Photo / Chris Loufte
Adam Glover, 31, and his wife, Katie, 26, were married in April last year. Photo / Chris Loufte
Couple face tough decision before treatment begins for husband's aggressive brain cancer.
Newlywed high school teacher Adam Glover planned to travel the world and bring up a family.
Then one day he collapsed at school and discovered he had an aggressive brain tumour. The average life expectancy for this type of cancer is two to three years.
Now the 31-year-old and his wife, Katie, who live on Auckland's North Shore, have put their life adventures on hold, and their days are focused on test results and hospital visits.
The history and computing teacher had a seizure at the end of March, during a parent-teacher interview at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt.
"I smashed my face up quite well - broke my cheekbone, fractured my eye socket, stopped breathing, and my heart stopped so they had to give me CPR," Mr Glover said.
An MRI scan found he had a brain tumour.
Surgery removed it, but testing found the cancer had spread into surrounding tissues.
But Mr Glover is maintaining a positive attitude - which he says is thanks to his loving family.
"There's no point in me being a misery and there's no point in me hiding away. I'm trying to be as positive as I can."
Next month he will begin six weeks of radiotherapy, five days a week. At the same time he will have daily doses of chemotherapy, which will drop down to one week-long high-dose session a month for five months.
Adam Glover and his wife Katie on their wedding day in April last year. Photo / Supplied
Because he is young, fit and otherwise healthy, he's hoping he'll be able to stick around for a further 10 years.
But the illness has taken its toll financially on the pair - who had both resigned from their jobs ahead of their travel plans.
"Then I had the seizure, and I haven't been able to go back to work - I was recovering from facial surgery where they had to put my cheekbone back in place and put my eye socket back together.
"Then I had the surgery in May, and I pretty much haven't been able to do anything since. Last term I only managed to relieve one day."
He is getting support from Work and Income, but said things were still tough financially.
"Katie's been getting bits of relief work here and there, but it's been hard," Mr Glover said. The couple are now living with Mrs Glover's parents on the North Shore - and they've got a big decision to make in the next few weeks.
"Unfortunately the chemotherapy could affect my ability to have a child - so we're thinking we've got six weeks before the therapy starts - do we try to have [a baby] before that?"
Mr Glover said that after therapy he wouldn't be able to try for children again for a year.
