A 26-year-old man who initially thought his symptoms were the flu has died after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. Kieran Shingler, from Warrington, started experiencing headaches, a sore throat and runny nose on Bonfire Night in 2022. He and his partner Abbie Henstock, 27, assumed it was flu or Covid-19, but when his appetite vanished, he sought medical help.
He was sent to Warrington Hospital, where doctors suspected meningitis. However, a CT scan revealed a mass in his brain. He was transferred to the Walton Centre in Liverpool, where a biopsy confirmed a grade three astrocytoma, an aggressive cancerous growth. Despite radiotherapy and chemotherapy, a scan last summer showed the tumour had started growing again.
Kieran, a HGV driver and keen triathlete, was told in December 2022 he had 12 months to live but surpassed that. He died in a Warrington hospice earlier this month. Abbie paid tribute, describing him as 'such a good lad' with a dry sense of humour, who 'wouldn't hurt a fly'. The couple had raised over £27,000 for brain tumour charities via a page called Kieran's Krew.
Abbie said she wants to continue fundraising, including for St. Rocco's Hospice. The Brain Tumour Charity notes that headaches are common in up to 60% of brain tumour patients, often caused by pressure on pain-sensitive blood vessels, not the tumour itself.
