Wrexham man’s headache turns out to be terminal brain cancer

While his illness is terminal, Josh said keeping his sense of humour and making memories remained his top priorities, as well as raising awareness to boost brain tumour research funding.

In January, Josh started having “these weird feelings” but “thought nothing of it”.

“I just thought I was tired,” he recalled.

“February is when it started properly. I had a 10-day headache. I would be walking my dog with my wife or talking to my mum and dad, and I’d feel zoned out. I found out later it was mini seizures and I didn’t realise. It’s really scary to look back on.”

On 9 February, his wife Kelly “dragged” him to see a GP, for the first time in about 12 years.

“I’ve always avoided it,” he said.

“There’s that societal expectation of ‘man up’ and get on with it. I was just popping paracetamol and getting early nights.”

He said he would always be grateful that Kelly was so insistent.

“I could not have done any of this without her. If I had kept on ignoring it, I might not be here now.”

Josh said the GP “found nothing wrong”, prescribing more painkillers and referring him to an optician, where again no issue was found.

“I didn’t have the greatest experience, it was quite dismissive,” he said, adding the surgery had since apologised to him and been “so helpful”.

Kelly, 33, added: “I knew something wasn’t right. I remember saying there were red flags, but we were told there was nothing to worry about.”