A London father-of-two – who recently turned 40 – said an inexplicable and overwhelming smell of bleach five years ago had resulted in a brain tumour diagnosis that he had thought was the end of his life, reports The Independent.
Sam Suriakumar said he had been in his bathroom at the time when the sudden scent of a cleaning agent almost filled his mouth, leaving him feeling dizzy.
Initially he dismissed the smell, believing his wife must have recently cleaned the bathroom.
However, the self-employed recruitment consultant and musician, who is an avid gym-goer, experienced the strong smell and dizziness again during a workout the next day.
Then, on his journey home, Suriakumar suffered a massive grand mal seizure on the London Underground that was so severe it dislocated his shoulder.
At the hospital, a large shadow was discovered on the left side of his brain, and he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour on 4 February 2020.
While the mass was stable for around two years, in 2023 he was told it had grown towards the front of his brain. It was officially diagnosed as a diffuse oligodendroglioma, a type of glioma which is often benign, but some can be cancerous.
As the tumour was positioned on the areas responsible for his speech, memories and movement, making it almost impossible to operate, he underwent 30 sessions of radiotherapy and nine months of chemotherapy treatment to try to suppress its growth.
He is now in a monitoring phase, receiving scans every six months.
On his 40th birthday last week, a milestone he did not think he would reach, he said he had tried to turn his situation into “something positive” with the aim of providing encouragement and inspiration to others.
In 2023, he tackled the London Marathon to raise money for Brain Tumour Research, and has also taken on other fundraising activities to raise around £60 000 for charity to date. He also became a supporter ambassador for the organisation, which has taken him into public speaking to share his journey.
Determined to keep pushing himself, he had also completed the HYROX indoor fitness competition in Belgium just six months after he finished treatment – involving 8m of running and eight functional workout exercises.
Suriakumar said he is now “sitting on the fence” between his tumour being low grade and benign or high grade and cancerous, saying the aim is to keep it “suppressed as much as possible”.
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