A dad-of-three tragically died just months after welcoming his third child with his wife. Physical symptoms of the 34-year-old Sam Bravo-Hibberd’s inoperable glioblastoma, also known as a GBM, began showing shortly after his daughter Alejandria’s birth, including headaches and confusion.
These which were initially brushed off by doctors, his family allege. His pregnant wife Mauricee even believed the personality changes she thought he had been experiencing for almost a year were a result of her own hormones.
At first, she says doctors dismissed his migraines, chalking down the symptom to being the dad of a newborn. But Sam received his devastating GBM diagnosis just two months later and was given weeks to live.
The Cambridgeshire resident underwent surgery and radiotherapy in hopes of getting more time with his young family. But his brain cancer proved to be particularly aggressive and he died in February this year.
His death has left his family heartbroken but he valiantly worked with the charity Brain Tumour Research late last year, along with his wife, to help raise awareness of the disease and the charity’s mission to find a cure. Mauricee spoke to the charity when the couple were still crowdfunding the money to try alternative treatments not available on the NHS.
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She revealed that their “hectic family life” had been brought almost to a complete halt by the diagnosis. She said: "We used to take our kids to quite a lot of after school clubs too, which we’ve had to cancel since Sam’s diagnosis.
"Gabriel, our two-year-old, played football with a local club and Theo, who is 13, had acting club, cadets and karate. Sam used to do most of the running around because he worked locally in recruitment whereas I have a substantial role in healthcare about an hour away and work longer hours.
"I’m currently on maternity leave having had our daughter, Alejandria, three months ago and am now also Sam’s full-time carer.” In hindsight, the mum-of-three said Sam’s symptoms began showing almost a year before his diagnosis.
But she said that at the time she had mistaken it for her own hormones amid her “difficult pregnancy”. She recalled: "It was like living with Jekyll and Hyde”.
She detailed his shifting treatment of her, how he recalled sequences of events and even a loss of interest in things that previously interested him. Mauricee shared: “He also struggled to hold down a job and even joked about changes in his accent and laughter which, in hindsight, were all symptoms of the tumour silently growing in his head.”
When Sam’s physical symptoms began to manifest, shortly after Alejandria was born, Mauricee recalled finding her husband on the floor after fainting from a headache. But he refused to go to A&E.
She was able to get her beloved to a GP the next day, who allegedly diagnosed Sam with migraines due to “sleep deprivation from having a newborn”. But having raised two other children with Sam, Mauricee felt something was different this time around - although she claims her pleas for an MRI scan fell on deaf ears.
A few weeks later, their oldest son Theo began showing worrying symptoms including a lump at the back of his ear and a swollen jaw. But when Mauricee took him to A&E, she signed her husband in too.
Theo received a concerning diagnosis of a deep skull base infection and blood clots in his neck. But Sam was lost and wandering the hospital before Mauricee was able to locate him with the help of a nurse.
Mauricee continued: “Sam did get seen by a doctor about six and half hours later. His physical assessment and bloodwork came back normal, and they were just going to send him home.
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"I was distraught and couldn’t stop crying. I begged the doctor for a CT scan, and pleaded with the nurse who found Sam to speak to the doctor and get him to believe there was something wrong with him. Sam was eventually sent for the scan.”
The diagnosis of a brain tumour provided some relief for the Mauricee that she “wasn’t going crazy”. But she was distraught, while her confused husband believed they had returned to the hospital because she was poorly.
With both Theo and Sam in the hospital, Gabriel at her sister’s and Alejandria still breastfeeding, Mauricee's medical background prepared her for the arduous journey that lay ahead. It was full of treatments, surgeries and recovery, or so she thought.
“The neurosurgeon told us Sam’s tumour, a glioblastoma, was inoperable and it was unlikely an oncologist would take his case on because of how aggressive his cancer was and how poor his baseline function was," she said. "This ruled out radiotherapy and chemo."
After finding some support online, the couple went for other medical opinions which included a biopsy. Mauricee said she discussed options with the surgical team to arrange an open biopsy that allowed nearly around 40% of the tumour to be removed.
Unfortunately, the test revealed Sam's GBM would be less likely to respond to chemo and a repeat MRI showed the tumour quickly grew into the area it had been removed from and progressed further. While Mauricee was still crowdfunding for alternative treatments when she sat down with Brain Tumour Research, she noted: “When the inevitable happens and Sam’s no longer with us, I want him to be talked about in a way that puts focus on brain tumour research and gives his life more purpose.”
The GoFundMe page is still active to “keep Sam’s supporters updated on the progress of his legacy with the Brain Tumour Research Charity, raise awareness and hopefully facilitate early diagnosis of those suffering the same. More importantly, to keep his memory alive and for his children growing up to see how brave and loved their father was. Forever grateful to you all.”
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