Cambridgeshire firefighter’s fundraiser aims to buy cancer vaccine

A firefighter diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour is fundraising for a pioneering treatment in the hope of spending more time with his family.

Paul Whitaker, 42, from the Huntingdon area of Cambridgeshire, was told in April 2024 he had a grade 3 astrocytoma, a rare and unpredictable form of brain cancer.

Mr Whitaker who has served as a firefighter for 17 years, had several treatments, but needed to raise more than £140,000 for “groundbreaking” immunotherapy not available the NHS or through private insurance.

He hoped the ADCV treatment would give him the chance to watch his boys grow up and hold his wife’s hand “a little longer”.

Mr Whitaker has had an awake craniotomy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, followed by weeks of daily radiotherapy, and recently completed a year of chemotherapy.

“When I heard the words ‘you have a brain tumour’. it shattered everything we knew,” he said.

“I have a wonderful wife, Hayley and two amazing young boys, [aged six and eight] and they are my world and everything I’m fighting for.”

His prognosis is terminal, with an average survival of just a few years, but Mr Whitaker said he wanted to more time to spend with his family.

He added it had been the “hardest year of our lives” and they had done everything to keep life joyful for their children.

The treatment Mr Whitaker was fundraising for is manufactured in the same manner as the DCVax-L vaccine which had a successful clinical trial completed in 2015.

It was a personalised vaccine that helped the immune system recognise and attack tumour cells.

“It’s amazing. It really is kind of groundbreaking… and the side effects are almost non-existent compared to chemotherapy,” he said.

“That’s why we’re fundraising, not for a miracle but for a chance to watch our boys grow up, to hold my wife’s hand for a little longer, a chance to live and a chance to give our boys more years with their dad,” he added.

He praised the kindness of people after more than £30,000 of the £140,000 target was raised in about 10 days.

“Time is a really precious commodity and a situation like this really highlights that,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of things I want to do, and a lot of that revolves around my two young boys.”