Doctors wrote off a father as a “sleep-deprived parent with a newborn” when he passed away only a few months after his first daughter was born. A father of three from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Sam Bravo-Hibberd, 34, started having headaches and was confused following a noticeable shift in personality.
The weeks after the birth of their third child, Alejandria were the most difficult for him physically and mentally. Doctors first diagnosed Sam’s headaches as a result of his lack of sleep as a new father.
However, the ex-satellite engineer and business consultant received the devastating news of an inoperable glioblastoma (GBM) just two months after the birth of his daughter.
Sam had a few weeks to live after undergoing radiation and surgery to reduce the tumor, but his cancer was highly aggressive.
The father’s untimely death in February devastated his family.
His wife, Mauricee, said she would never be able to fill the “excruciating void” she felt but that the lovely memories they had will help.
On June 23, which was a few days shy of his 35th birthday, a football competition was held in his honor to benefit Brain Tumour Research. Sam was an avid football fan.
Sam was diagnosed more than a year after he started exhibiting symptoms.
In a blog article for Brain Tumour Research, surgical expert Maurice stated that something had changed in him, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was at the time.
She said they had a pleasant marriage, but suddenly that changed, and she didn’t understand why.
When Maurice first saw changes in her husband, she felt he was like Jekyll and Hyde. According to her, Sam would tell her one day that he loved her, and then the next day, he would do something that said otherwise.
In retrospect, she should have known that the benign tumor developing in his brain was causing him to chuckle and change his accent.
She said things escalated to the point where she sought a divorce in March 2023, even though she was pregnant.
The marriage between Sam and Mauricee was saved, but two weeks after Alejandria was born, Sam started experiencing physical issues.
During the school summer vacations, Sam was readmitted to the hospital for a CT scan after Maurice begged a nurse to take her husband seriously, claiming that something was wrong.
When they took him seriously, they found a tumor, but it was too late.
