Alistair Petrie, known for roles in Sex Education and The Night Manager, has described the moment he feared his son Cal might not survive a rare and aggressive brain cancer. Cal, 23, was diagnosed with pineoblastoma after developing headaches during a family holiday and underwent a 13-hour operation to remove 98% of the tumour.
Diagnosis After a Holiday Headache
Cal appeared on Tuesday's (November 10) episode of This Morning alongside his father and his surgeon, Arthur Dalton. He told hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley that a headache which began after a dive in a pool in Kenya lasted for about seven days before he sought medical help.
"We were on holiday in Kenya and I did a very benign dive in the pool, and sort of came up and touched my head, and just assumed that it was dehydration or just a little impact sort of headache," Cal said. "I tried to drink loads of water and took medication."
He added: "That headache would last for about seven days, and that was sort of the time when we went, 'Right, this isn't quite normal, so let's go to the hospital' after being pushed quite a lot by my family and girlfriend."
The Moment Before Surgery
At the hospital, doctors initially told Cal it was probably a migraine, but a CT scan revealed a build-up of fluid, requiring an operation. A biopsy taken during surgery was first thought to be benign before it was confirmed malignant, and another operation was scheduled three days later.
Alistair described the emotional moment Cal was taken down for surgery. "The most emotional part for my wife, and I was when Cal had been prepped and spoken to by the anaesthetist and was being wheeled into the lift to go down into surgery," he said.
"I put my hands on Arthur's shoulder, looked him square in the eyes, and said, 'Please, just bring him back'. And Arthur shook my hand and with a very faint smile, just said, 'I'm looking forward to it'."
Alistair continued: "Arthur could be the only one to speak of what that really meant, but I took it as this was a man with an enormous amount of empathy and an astonishingly skilled set. As those lift doors closed, Lucy and I fell to the floor. Our knees literally buckled, that was our emotional reaction."
Treatment and Recovery
Following the surgery, Cal underwent six weeks of proton beam therapy, a treatment in which high-energy protons are precisely targeted at a tumour, as well as chemotherapy. This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITVX.
