Tyler Morton, a 21-year-old artist from Bedford, died from an incurable brain tumour just four weeks after doctors incorrectly diagnosed him with an ear infection and sent him home with antibiotics.
Tyler started suffering from an earache in January 2026, before the left side of his face suddenly went numb and he began struggling to walk. After a trip to the hospital, he was diagnosed with an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. However, the antibiotics made no difference, and his condition quickly deteriorated. He began vomiting and lost function on the entire left side of his body.
Misdiagnosis and rapid decline
Tyler's sister, Ella Morton, 19, a mechanic, said: "Tyler had a CT scan but it didn't show anything untoward. He was told he had vertigo and was given anti-sickness medication, but it didn't help at all." Ella took him back to the hospital, where he suffered two seizures. By that point, Tyler was physically disabled and could barely speak.
Five days later, a CT scan revealed a lesion on his brain. A follow-up scan at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and a biopsy confirmed he had a grade 4 glioblastoma. "Three weeks earlier, he was walking and talking, and now he couldn't do anything himself. He was just a body at that point," Ella said. Tyler was discharged from hospital to pass away at home and died on March 25.
Glioblastoma: an aggressive brain cancer
Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer with no known cure. Around 3,200 people in the UK are diagnosed every year, with only one third surviving beyond 12 months. The average survival time is between 12 and 18 months. Doctors told Tyler he was too ill to undergo treatment because his body would not have been able to cope.
Ella said: "Everything happened so quickly and he deteriorated so fast. Tyler was an amazing older brother. He was funny and kind – the sort of brother I went to for anything. We both lived with our nan and we were inseparable. I was distraught nothing could be done for him."
Call for more research funding
Ella is now working with the charity Brain Tumour Research during Glioblastoma Awareness Week (13-19 July). She completed the charity's 200k in May Your Way challenge, raising more than £1,300 for Brain Tumour Research. Research from the charity shows that brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002.
Dr Karen Noble, director of research and policy at Brain Tumour Research, said: "Tyler's story reflects the devastating reality faced by so many families across the UK. We are calling on the Government to increase the national investment in research into brain tumours, including glioblastoma. We need to also see an increase in the number of clinical trials, and access to them, in the UK, and we want to end inequalities in access to whole genome sequencing that could inform access to trials and emerging treatments."
Ella added: "I was so angry and upset that we hadn't found out he had a brain tumour sooner. I definitely think a lot more could have been done for him. We were told Tyler couldn't have any treatment because his body wouldn't have been able to handle it. If they had found it sooner, he probably would have had the chance to have chemotherapy. At least that would have felt like we tried. More government funding for research is vital if we are to find a cure for brain tumours."
