THE Wanted’s Tom Parked had to hear his terminal brain tumour diagnosis alone because his pregnant wife Kelsey was banned from the hospital.
The singer, 32, who is a father to 15-month-old daughter Aurelia Rose and also has another baby on the way, revealed that he has stage 4 glioblastoma.
Due to hospital restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic, Tom was forced to hear the awful news without the support of his wife – who he married two years ago.
Speaking to OK! Magazine, he said: “Kelsey couln’t come in because of Covid. They pulled the curtain around my bed and said, “It’s a brain tumour.”
“All I could think was, ‘F***ing hell!’ I was in shock. It’s stage four gliobastoma and they’ve said it’s terminal. It was a lot to deal with by myself. I still haven’t processed it.”
Kelsey said: “It was horrendous. They rang me and told me over the phone.
“They said, ‘It’s a tumour and it’s worst-case scenario’. They also told us it was inoperable and what the treatment would be.
“I was in a complete state. My friend Kelsey was with me and she just said, ‘Don’t pass out’. It was like everything stopped. Obviously being told you have any tumour is bad, but to be told you have the worst one is a lot to take in.
“All I could think was, ‘What’s going to happen and what is our life now?’”
The average life expectancy for his illness ranges from between three months to 18 months from the time of diagnosis.
Tom decided not to ask for a prognosis and insists he will beat the illness to have a future with his children. He said: “I’m going to be here, I’m going to fight this.”
The star suffered a seizure in July and took himself to A&E where he was put on a waiting list for an MRI scan.
Six weeks later he had another more serious seizure during a family trip to Norwich and was rushed to hospital.
Tom’s condition is the most common high grade cancerous primary brain tumour in adults.
It begins in the brain and is often quick to spread. The aggressive cancer is difficult to treat and is resistant to treatment, as the cells within the tumour are not all of the same type.
The star is being supported by his Wanted bandmates including Max George and Jay McGuinness, who today told him: “We love you.”
