My daughter died when she was 15 — now my son has a brain tumor

A British mom is absolutely devastated after her son was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor — following the sudden death of her teenage daughter.

Anne Siddall, 55, was still coming to terms with the death of her 15-year-old daughter, Madeline, by cardiac arrest, when her 24-year-old son, Archie, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in his brain in October.

She told SWNS it is “unbearable” to even think she could lose both of her children in such a short time.

“If I think about it too much, I go to a very dark place,” she admitted.

“We were told [Archie’s] tumor was incurable. We haven’t asked for a prognosis; we just didn’t want to go there.”

Siddall and her husband, Craig, began to notice some strange behavior from their son shortly before his diagnosis.

She recalled Archie, dad to 1-year-old Amelia, not being able to remember certain things, like what they were having for dinner.

“When working together, Craig would ask Archie to fetch something from his van,” Anne explained. “But he would return empty-handed because he couldn’t remember what he’d been asked.”

At first, doctors chalked it up to stress — but Archie began getting severe, splitting headaches.

When he was brought back to the hospital, he was reportedly told he had a migraine. His parents were unconvinced.

“I just felt something more sinister was going on,” Anne said. “Archie became extremely lethargic and just wanted to sleep all the time.”

She also noticed he acted confused and even aggressive at certain times.

Craig took him back to the hospital, where he was able to get a CT scan that finally revealed the cancer.

Anne said surgeons were able to remove around half of the tumor, but were unsuccessful in getting the rest, as it was too deep on his brain stem.

After the procedure, he underwent six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. He is said to now be receiving six cycles of chemotherapy in tablet form.

“We’re trying to make memories with Archie and his little girl Amelia, but Archie suffers from short-term memory loss, so he struggles to remember what we’ve done,” Anne said.

To raise money for the UK charity Brain Tumour Research, she will be partaking in the “Jog 26.2 Miles in May Challenge.”

Participants are tasked with running the length of a marathon, 26.2 miles, over the course of a month.

“We’re really grateful to Anne for taking on the ‘Jog 26.2 miles in May challenge,’ as it’s only with the support of people like her that we’re able to progress our research into brain tumors and improve the outcome for patients like Archie who are forced to fight this awful disease,” Matthew Price, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research, told SWNS.

In the meantime, the Siddalls are just trying to take things day by day, praising those helping them along the way.

“I’ve been humbled by how generous people have been and the kindness of all those who have helped my family or came to visit Archie when he was in hospital, it’s heartwarming,” Anne said.