A seemingly healthy TV producer blamed his bloated feeling on “drinking too much beer and eating too much pizza” – only to collapse on a bike ride and discover he had a highly-aggressive, cancerous tumour the size of a satsuma in his stomach.
Given just a 50 percent chance of living for more than five years, after the diagnosis, Tom Leeburn refused to feel sorry for himself.
With remarkable courage and humour, he chose, instead, to raise awareness of the symptoms of stomach cancer – even joking that chemotherapy had benefits because it meant losing his GINGER hair.
Tom, during chemotherapy (Collect/PA Real Life)
In a hilarious Facebook post, Tom, now 37, of Stockwell, south London, who had been cycling with friends in Sydney, Australia, when he collapsed, revealed the more embarrassing aspects of treatment.
He recalled his shame-faced visit to a fertility clinic with his mum, when he provided a semen sample to be frozen, as chemotherapy can damage sperm.
“Then 35, I had to reassure staff that this woman in her 60s accompanying me was not my girlfriend,” he giggled.
Tom, the morning before he flew home from Australia, in August 2015 (Collect/PA Real Life)
Diagnosed more than two years ago, Tom was then working on The Voice Australia, alongside Jessie J, Ricky Martin and Delta Goodrem.
Now in remission, having put his love life on hold, partially because he was so sick but also “because girlfriends want something more long-term,” he’s looking to the future.
“It’s hard to offer something long-term when you can only offer a 50 percent chance for the next five years,” Tom said.
A post shared by Trekstock Cancer Support (@trekstock) on Jul 22, 2017 at 8:11am PDT
Tom, who moved back home to London from Sydney, Australia, after his diagnosis, said in his Facebook post, which was shared hundreds of time: “Happy Cancerversary to me! Two years ago, today I was diagnosed with stomach cancer and given a 50 per cent chance of living the next five years. Well, I’m still here.
“Life as a young adult is tough. Try it with cancer. Although my treatment wasn’t easy, with encouragement from friends and family, I always managed to have a laugh and a giggle, even at the most inappropriate of times and with the most inappropriate of jokes.
“Be it the benefits of losing your hair if you’re ginger, troubles of dating with cancer (hard when people generally want something ‘long term’), or, as happened to me, the joys of a trip to a fertility clinic with my mum. Never again.”
Tom, after surgery, in September 2015 (Collect/PA Real Life)
He continued: “Generally, my outlook during treatment was incredibly positive. There were lots of laughs, incredible experiences living each day as your last, and beautiful displays of love. I even saw my divorced parents hug for the first time in nearly 30 years.”
Tom, recalled how he was with Australian mates cycling on a wine tour of Sydney when, out-of-the-blue, he collapsed.
“It was a mate’s 30th birthday wine tour of the Hunter Valley,” he explained. “I was really struggling with my breathing and suddenly collapsed. I was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, where it emerged I was anaemic and I had three blood transfusions.”
Tom, on Table Mountain, in Cape Town, in April 2016 (Collect/PA Real Life)
Keen to discover the cause of the anaemia, doctors conducted further tests – putting tiny cameras down his throat and up his bottom.
“The cameras found a satsuma-sized tumour,” said Tom. “I was horrified. There’d been talk of an ulcer, so that was a real shock. Looking back, I’d had some symptoms, like bloating after binging on pizza and drinking, but who doesn’t feel like that?
“The other symptoms people get – darkened stools – well I hadn’t noticed, if I had them.”
Tom, pictured here in January, was diagnosed with stomach cancer two years ago (Collect/PA Real Life)
Tests indicated the tumour was stage three – very aggressive – and Tom was immediately referred for chemotherapy at Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Sydney.
His parents flew over to see him from the UK and he started chemotherapy in Sydney, remembering it being “horrible, like having a really, really bad hangover every day for months.”
“It was awful,” he admitted. “I was vomiting and had nausea and heartburn. And, I had to go and leave my little soldiers in a fertility clinic. I went with my mum. Can you imagine? I felt like a teenager. The only positive benefit is my ginger hair fell out.”
Tom, having treatment in hospital (Collect/PA Real Life)
In summer 2015, he flew home and that September, at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, he had a six-hour operation to have 75 per cent of his stomach removed – meaning, for months, he was on a liquid diet.
He couldn’t drink anything with bubbles in, as he would get painful hiccups.
He also had further chemotherapy, to ensure all the cancer had gone.
Tom is raising awareness of the symptoms of stomach cancer after he put his bloating down to drinking too much beer (Collect/PA Real Life)
By Christmas he had made a miraculous recovery and was able to eat a small roast dinner – something he’d been warned he wouldn’t be able to do.
There was further good news when tests showed h had gone into remission, so at the start of 2016, he decided to go travelling.
“I wanted to treat myself, so travelled around and saw the world,” he said. “I went on safari in South Africa, enjoyed a road trip across the States, attending Coachella (the LA festival) and had a great time.”
Tom learned he had a tumour in his stomach, the size of a satsuma (Collect/PA Real Life)
But, back in London in September 2016, anxiety and then depression hit. Tom told how he struggled to get back to work.
“I’d been told I only had a 50 per cent chance of living and, after all the treatment, I realised how hard it was,” he explained. “Living with the after-effects of cancer was really difficult.
“Not just the physical complexities of having the majority of my stomach removed, but the psychological impact, too.”
Virgin Money Giving | Fundraising | Tom Leeburn’s fundraising page
Tom Leeburn is raising money for Trekstock. Sponsor them with Virgin Money Giving.
He went on: “Facing cancer as a young adult is tough and comes with a complex set of challenges that can, effectively, place your life on hold when everyone else can appear to be moving forward.
“For me, this has had a knock-on effect on my confidence, leaving me with increased anxiety and has culminated in a diagnosis of clinical depression.”
Tom said he was “completely stuck” for six months until he found the charity Trekstock, which helps people in their 20s and 30s living with cancer and its after affect.
Tom, following surgery, in September 2015 (Collect/PA Real Life)
Trekstock, he said, gave him the confidence to return to work.
“They provided relevant practical and social support,” he explained. “Not only have they helped me personally, but they will also continue to help provide support more than 100,000 people.”
This Friday, August 18, Tom will fly to Tasmania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Trekstock with a group of other novice climbers.
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