Crowdfunding family raises more than £150k in three days for life-extending treatment

A desperate family in a race against time to save a young father from a terminal illness has raised tens of thousands of pounds in just a few days to help fund life-extending treatment.
When civil engineer Aman Sumal, of Ruislip in West London, was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) at the start of this year, his son, Rajan, was less than a year old.
With his condition fast deteriorating and no more treatment options available on the NHS, his oncologist from Charing Cross Hospital, in London, has recommended starting a combination of two experimental drugs, both of which will need to be privately funded.
In a desperate attempt to raise the cash needed, this week Aman’s family launched a fundraising page on crowdfunding site GoFundMe, with more than £75,000 donated in the first 24 hours alone and the current total exceeding £153,000.
Aman’s symptoms started in August 2020 when he had a seizure and began suffering headaches, but he was given anti-seizure medication and referred for three-monthly scans for what was initially thought to be a low-grade brain tumour.
The 36-year-old suffered another seizure in January and was scheduled for brain surgery after an MRI showed areas of concern. COVID-19 restrictions prevented his wife, Jasdip, from being able to join him in the hospital, forcing Aman to undergo surgery alone. A biopsy of his tumour revealed the severity of his disease with Aman given a prognosis of 12 to 14 months and put on a course of chemotherapy and intensive radiotherapy.
His family continued to search for alternative treatments and privately-funded a protocol by a naturopath in Australia, which included a programme of natural supplements and repurposed drugs. It also sent a sample of his tumour to CeGaT, a gene analysis company in Germany, for DNA sequencing to find out if targeted medication or a personalised vaccine could help.
It is hoped the money being raised this week will enable Aman to start taking intravenous peptide vaccines from CeGaT, which have been specifically formulated for him, and pay for private immunotherapy treatment.
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.
Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK. It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure. The charity is calling for a national annual spend of £35 million in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia and is also campaigning for greater repurposing of drugs.
To help Aman’s family raise the funds it needs, visit www.gofundme.com and search for Anoop Sumal.