A ‘fit and healthy’ father received a devastating cancer diagnosis after a bizarre symptom had caused a trip to the doctors – a permanent scent of caramel.
Stoke-on-Trent Chip Shop owner Costas Fantis, 57, knew something was wrong when he continued to smell the smell of the sweet treat once a month.
After several tests and a biopsy, the Four of four Diagnosis Stage 4 IDH-Wild type Glioblastoma-It was most aggressive type of brain cancer-in April 2024.
The son of Costas, Antonio, 27, a quantity investigator, of Stoke-on-Trent, said: “All our lives has just been turned upside down.
“His sense of smell changed and he continued to get this strange sweet caramel scent.
“We didn’t think much about it. We absolutely did not know that it was a symptom of something so serious. ‘
The unusual sense of smell was also the only symptom of Consta.
Antonio said: ‘It’s really bizarre because the symptoms did not have much in terms of symptoms.
“At the strange opportunity he would have a caramel scent, a sweet scent. But it would happen very quickly, and once a month or so.
Costas Fantis, 57, was diagnosed with a degree four glioblastoma after repeated smelling caramel
Four Father is now fundraising for alternative treatment in Germany
“What we know now, they define them as mini attacks, they last seconds, nothing happens to you while you do it.”
Costas initially suspected epilepsy, after he had treated it as a child.
“As a family we didn’t really look at it,” said Antonio. “But we told him he should have a scan and said it will probably be in connection with the epilepsy.
“We didn’t think anything about it, because he was really a fit and a healthy man.”
But in April the family was hit by the life -changing diagnosis, Costas had stage four brain cancer.
And it was only in a biopsy that the full size of the Costas condition was unveiled – the tumor was unusable.
“We didn’t really know how to take it,” Antonio added.
“We were worried, scared, nervous, but then still tried to get a grip on the situation and what was going on because he had no symptoms.
His family says they ‘scales were shocked’ at his diagnosis
“It just proves that you can be a fit and healthy man, but still have something wrong with you.”
Since the diagnosis, Costas, Van Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, NHS radiotherapy and chemotherapy has completed the only treatment currently available in the UK.
The family is now fundraising for alternative treatments in Germany.
Antonio said: ‘The only things that the NHS offers, what the enormous problem is, and why we do the fundraising is a radiotherapy and chemotherapy course.
‘In the past 20 years, the treatments have not changed for glioblastomas in the UK.
‘So it is quite scary to be diagnosed, knowing that there is not much that the NHS can do.
“Say it that way, they tell us in the advisory meetings not to reduce anything and just enjoy your life, in the most shinning way.”
The disease affects around 3,000 British and 12,000 Americans every year.
The wanted singer Tom Parker (depicted with his wife Kelsey Parker in October 2021) died in March 2022 after a battle of 18 months with phase four Glioblastoma. He said after his diagnosis that he was ‘shocked’ about the limited treatment options for GBM and ‘massive improvements’ were needed
The average survival time for glioblastoma is between 12 and 18 months, according to the charity of the brain tumor. Only 5 percent of patients survive five years, says it.
The disease killed the Labor politician Dame Tessa Jowell in 2018.
In 2023, the wanted singer Tom Parker also died after a battle of 18 months with phase four glioblastoma.
He said after his diagnosis that he was ‘shocked’ about the limited treatment options for GBM and ‘massive improvements’ were needed.
Diagnosed patients are usually undergone surgery to remove as much tumor as possible.
This is followed by daily radiation and chemo medicines for about six weeks, after which the medicines are scaled back.
Radiation can then be used to destroy extra tumor cells and treat those who are not good enough for surgery.
But the cancer can be doubled in size in just seven weeks.
For comparison, the fastest growing lung cancer lasts 14 weeks to double.
Common symptoms are headaches that get worse, nausea and vomiting, blurry or double visibility, problems with speaking, changed feeling of touch and attacks.
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