A man who was told at the age of six that he would never run again after a stroke during brain tumour surgery has become a world champion para-athlete and Guinness World Record holder. Anthony Bryan, now 36, from Enfield, north London, was diagnosed with a golf ball-sized astrocytoma after suffering severe migraines and vomiting. During emergency surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital, he suffered a stroke, leaving him paralysed down his left side and without peripheral vision in his left eye.
Doctors said he would never be active or sporty again, but Bryan, a fitness instructor, refused to accept that prognosis. After six months in a wheelchair and years of physiotherapy, he learned to walk and then run. Today, he cannot move his left arm or ankle and uses a leg brace, but he has become an athletics world champion and multiple Guinness World Record holder.
Now an ambassador for Brain Tumour Research during Brain Tumour Awareness Month, Bryan hopes to inspire others. 'I could have easily taken the doctor’s word for it and just thought, “I can’t run, I can’t do it”, but luckily I was very stubborn,' he told PA Real Life. He added: 'For those who are being told, “You can’t do this, you can’t do that”, I’d love for them to look at me and think, “He’s doing it, so I can do it, too”.'
Bryan's diagnosis came after repeated dismissals from doctors who said his symptoms were migraines or that he was making himself sick. His father used private health insurance to get a second opinion, and an MRI revealed the tumour. More than 1,000 people in the UK will receive a brain tumour diagnosis this month, and brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer, according to Brain Tumour Research.
