Paul and Beverley’s Story

Paul was diagnosed with a large, aggressive brain tumour in December 2015. Despite the increasing complexity of his condition, he ...

Paul and Beverley’s Story

Paul and Beverley and their family

Paul was diagnosed with a large, aggressive brain tumour in December 2015. Despite the increasing complexity of his condition, he was able to remain at home, with his family, for another two years. His wife, Beverley, explains the role the Rennie Grove nurses played in making that happen…

“Paul was an amazing cook – it was always one of the bugbears between us actually. Who’s going to cook tonight?… because we usually both wanted to! I worked long shifts three days a week and there would always be a delicious meal waiting for me when I got home. But one or two months before he was diagnosed, there was a change. He struggled to want to cook – he was no longer enjoying it. He couldn’t remember words or the wrong word would come out. He started falling asleep in the afternoon while he was painting in his studio.

“You try and look for a simple explanation and easy solution: I wondered if he had a vitamin deficiency? We put it down to exhaustion because we’d only moved house in February and then we’d been really busy with work and looking after mum and dad. It was only when he was uncharacteristically unsociable in Christmas week, when my best friend and her husband came for dinner, that I got really worried. He didn’t want to eat or even sit with us – so unlike him. I told him he was going to the doctors tomorrow. He said he was going nowhere till after Christmas…”

Paul by the Christmas tree

“Because we had the JIC meds, when we needed to call the Rennie Grove nurses out in the middle of the night, they could come and increase the dose almost immediately. It meant Paul remained as comfortable as possible and didn’t have to be admitted to hospital, which he would have hated."

-Beverley

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