Dad given treatment to sort ear infection ended up having rare skull tumour
A man was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer in his skull, suffered a brain bleed, had a heart attack, had one operation to combat the tumour, celebrated the birth of his first child and had a second operation that then didn't heal properly and led to his head leaking brain fluid all by the age of 29.
Not many people have had as gruelling a few years as Jake Watts, from Sanford-le-Hope, Essex, who first learned he had cancer when he was just 26 years old.
The electrician noticed his hearing going in his right ear in early 2023 and was given antibiotics for an infection.
Nothing improved.
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It wasn't until months later when he underwent a routine eye test at Specsavers, that lots of blood vessels and high pressure were spotted behind his right eye.
An MRI confirmed the worrying signs and he was referred to Southend University Hospital, where a shocking diagnosis of chondrosarcoma, a rare cancerous bone tumour, growing from his skull and into his brain, was given.
Jake said: "When the optician found the pressure behind my eye, they said it might just be high blood pressure, but it was best to get checked.
"When I was then being referred to cancer and tumour specialists, it was a bit of a panic to hear at just 26."
Yet, things were to get worse.
Jake suffered a brain bleed while camping
The tumour was found and biopsied, with Jake's treatment plan being scheduled, when things took a terrifying turn while he was on a camping trip with his partner, Chloe March, 29, to celebrate their anniversary in September 2024.
It was on the final day when he woke up with a 'weird pain' in his head and things quickly deteriorated.
"I started being sick loads, in a lot of pain, and then I couldn't see," Jake said.
He was rushed to hospital and it transpired he was suffering a brain bleed, which then caused him to have a heart attack.
"We rang an ambulance and I was in hospital for five days, having steroids to stop the brain bleed caused by the tumour," Jake said.
"While I was there I had this sudden pain in my chest which turned out to be a heart attack caused by the spike in blood pressure because of the brain bleed.
"Nurses told me after that if I had been seen a second later, I would have gone into cardiac arrest."
Jake survived but his trials and tribulations were not over.
Surgeries, births and more scares
The next step on Jake's medical odyssey came when he went under the knife for a 16-hour operation which removed 70 per cent of the tumour, but surgeons were unable to remove it all as it had become entangled with his nerves and grown onto his brain stem.
This required a second operation but Jake had the small 'spanner in the works' of Chloe being heavily pregnant with their first child.
Orla Ann Watts was born in September 2025 and Jake went in for the delayed second surgery the following January.
But his wound did not heal properly afterwards and began leaking brain fluid.
He said: "I thought I was bleeding when my head was wet. So I had to go back so they could drain enough fluid to keep the pressure low so the wound would heal."
After all that, Jake finally was able to begin the final stage of his treatment, proton beam therapy, an advanced form of radiotherapy, in July.
The next steps will be determined after his next set of scans, in which the effectiveness of the radiotherapy will be revealed.
But before then, Jake has more concerns as he has used all his sick leave at work and the family are struggling to get by on Chloe's single wage while on maternity leave.
They are raising money on GoFundMe to help pay the mortgage, which has currently raised nearly £6,000 of a £4,000 goal.
Yet, despite it all, Jake remains positive.
He said: "You can't make a fuss or feel depressed, it's not good for anyone.
"We've just had to take it in our stride.
"Having our baby through this has made me want to get well, coming home to her makes me feel better."
Raising funds
Daniel Murphy