Dad-of-three given a year to live is crowdfunding for life-saving treatment in Germany

A man who was given one year to live due to a rare brain tumour is now crowdfunding to get a "life-saving vaccine" in Germany.

Former bricklayer Chris Brooks, 37, was diagnosed with a Grade 4 Astrocytoma in June last year.

At the time, Chris was told that no cure was available but that he could get surgery to prolong his life by 12 to 15 months.

The following month, Chris underwent the procedure where most of his tumour was surgically removed.

Over the last 12 months, the family, from Manea, Cambs., consulted various experts on the matter and discovered a "life-saving vaccine" in Germany.

The vaccine, produced by the biotech company CeGat, is not available in the UK.

Chris's wife Kirsty Brooks, 32, said: "This is our only option to give Chris a second chance at life.

"We all want nothing more than Chris to have many more years and to see his beautiful girls grow up."

The family have raised £60,000 and are hoping to raise another £20,000.

Most of the money raised has been used for the treatment and the remainder is put towards regular travel to Tübingen - just south of Stuttgart.

Chris is now halfway through his course of 14 vaccines that he has to take every four to six weeks.

The couple, who have three daughters Lily, 8, Rhia, 12, and Cassie, 13, have spent the last five months travelling back and forth to Germany.

Kristy, a self-employed beautician, said: "We went to Germany for one week for the first four vaccines in April and have been every month for the last three months.

"We have another seven trips to Germany for the remaining vaccines."

The course of vaccinations is in response to blood immune therapy from CeGat, who told Chris: "Within the genome of your tumor, mutations were identified leading to novel protein sequences (neoantigens).

"Tumor cells expressing and presenting such neoantigens may be recognized by the immune system.

"In order to train the immune system to detect and attack tumor cells more efficiently, a vaccine has been tailored to the specific neoantigens present in your tumor.

"The vaccine consists of small pieces of protein containing carefully selected neoantigens (neoantigen- peptides).

"These peptides were synthetically synthesized and formulated into an injectable vaccine.

"It is assumed that repeated vaccinations with those neoantigen-peptides will induce a specific immune response against the tumor which ultimately leads to its destruction."

Kirsty added: "We live our lives by the scans every three months.

"We hope that the vaccine and the personalised medicine will help prevent the tumour from returning.

"We hope by doing the treatments privately now in time NHS will have researched and come up with potential treatments to help cure or even so prolong the life of patients' brain tumours."

When Chris has had his tenth vaccine, he and his family will find out if his response has been positive.

Kirsty said: "As far as we are aware once the vaccines have been completed that is it.

"Chris will keep on the personalised medicine so this theoretically helps to stop the pathways to cancer.

"Each treatment we are doing helps in different ways.

"We are throwing everything we can at it whilst it’s fresh to prevent the cancer from coming back."

The family are now in a state of limbo waiting for the results and hoping for the best.

Their fundraising page can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/chris-youve-got-this-beatitbrooksy?utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer