A super-fit dad died six months after doctors misdiagnosed a brain tumour and dismissed his symptoms as a trapped nerve.
Ade Newman, 49, went to his GP after he began struggling to write properly and complained that his head “felt funny”.
The dad-of-two was referred to specialists who dismissed his concerns and said he was probably suffering from a trapped nerve.
But when his health deteriorated, he went back to hospital and doctors carried out an MRI scan. His wife Terra, 45, says it failed to scan his head properly and he was discharged.
Weeks later he was unable to walk or talk and in June last year he underwent another scan which revealed he had cancer.
Ade immediately started aggressive radiotherapy treatment and he regained his speech and mobility.
His family also launched a desperate appeal to raise £500,000 for pioneering CAR-T cell therapy but it was too late and his health went downhill and he died in his sleep at home in Worcester on Monday.
Tragic Ade was surrounded by his wife and their two children, son Cove, 12, and eight-year-old daughter Ever.
Terra believes that if doctors had scanned Ade just six inches higher they would have spotted the tumour earlier and possibly given the family more time together.
She said: “Back in April, he was fine. He was very fit and active, cycling 200 miles a week.
“He just came home one day and said ‘my head feels funny’. It came out of the blue. He said ‘I can’t write anymore, isn’t this weird’.
“There were more symptoms, he reminded me of a stroke victim. He went to A&E twice and doctors sent him home saying he had a trapped nerve.
“But then he could no longer walk, he was having trouble speaking and that was when we got taken seriously.
“The MRI could have easily gone just six inches higher and done a scan of his brain and we would have known two months earlier.
“It went on for two months. They finally did an MRI in August and found the large brain tumour.
“At that point, they did not know it was cancerous, they thought it was benign. He had it removed but it grew back within nine weeks to almost its original size.
“They only gave him two rounds of chemo, in September and October, before they wrote him off, and said there is not a lot they can do.”
Ade was moved back home to be with his family for the final two weeks of his life before he passed away in his sleep.
Terra, who was married to Ade for 15 years, said: “It was only six months from the time of diagnosis to when he passed which was no time at all.
“He was so healthy and didn’t drink or smoke and was never ill.
“It’s shocking to think it could take someone’s life that quickly and someone who had been so healthy. Maybe we would have had more time together if the doctors had found the tumour earlier?”