{"id":17826,"date":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/17826\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:12:18","slug":"i-suffered-one-extremely-bizarre-symptom-before-worst-cancer-diagnosis-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/17826\/","title":{"rendered":"I suffered one extremely bizarre symptom before ‘worst cancer diagnosis possible’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A ‘fit and healthy’ father received a devastating cancer<\/a> diagnosis after a bizarre symptom triggered a trip to the doctors\u2014a lasting smell of caramel.<\/p>\n

Stoke-on-Trent chip shop owner Costas Fantis, 57, knew something was wrong when once a month he kept smelling the scent of the sweet treat.<\/p>\n

After several tests and a biopsy, the dad-of-four was diagnosed with stage 4 IDH-wildtype glioblastoma\u2014the most aggressive type of brain cancer\u2014in April 2024.<\/p>\n

Costas’ son, Antonio, 27, a quantity surveyor, from Stoke-on-Trent, said: ‘All of our lives have just been flipped upside down.<\/p>\n

‘His sense of smell changed and he kept getting this strange sweet caramel smell.<\/p>\n

‘We didn’t think much of it. We definitely didn’t know it was a symptom of something so serious.’<\/p>\n

The unusual change of smell was also Consta’s only symptom.<\/p>\n

Antonio said: ‘It’s really bizarre because symptoms wise he didn’t have much at all.<\/p>\n

‘On the odd occasion he would have a caramel smell, a sweet smell. But it would happen very quickly, and once a month or so.<\/p>\n

\"Costas <\/p>\n

Costas Fantis, 57, was diagnosed with a grade four glioblastoma after repeatedly smelling caramel<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The father of four is now fundraising for alternative treatment in Germany<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

‘From what we now know, they define them as mini seizures, they last seconds, nothing happens to you whilst you do it.’<\/p>\n

Costas initially suspected epilepsy, having dealt with it as a child.<\/p>\n

‘As a family we didn’t really look into it much,’ Antonio said. ‘But we told him to have a scan and said it’s probably going to be in relation to the epilepsy.<\/p>\n

‘We weren’t really thinking anything of it at all as he was a really fit and healthy man.’<\/p>\n

But in April, the family were hit with the life changing diagnosis, Costas had stage four brain cancer.<\/p>\n

And it wasn’t until a biopsy that the full extent of Costas’ condition was revealed\u2014the tumour was inoperable.<\/p>\n

‘We didn’t really know how to take it,’ Antonio added.<\/p>\n

‘We were worried, scared, nervous but then still trying to get to grips with the situation and what was going on because he had no symptoms.<\/p>\n

\"His <\/p>\n

His family say they were ‘shell shocked’ at his diagnosis<\/p>\n

‘It just kind of proves that you can be a fit and healthy man yet still have something wrong with you.’<\/p>\n

Since the diagnosis, Costas, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, has completed NHS radiotherapy and chemotherapy – the only treatment currently available in the UK.<\/p>\n

The family are now fundraising for alternative treatments in Germany.<\/p>\n

Antonio said: ‘The only things the NHS offer, which is the massive problem, and why we’re doing the fundraising, is a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

‘In the last 20 years the treatments haven’t changed for glioblastomas in the UK.<\/p>\n

‘So it’s quite a scary thing to be diagnosed with, knowing that there’s not much the NHS can do.<\/p>\n

‘Put it this way, they’re telling us in the consultancy meetings not to cut back on anything and just enjoy your life, in the most harrowing way possible.’<\/p>\n

The disease strikes around 3,000 Britons and 12,000 Americans each year.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Wanted singer Tom Parker (pictured with his wife Kelsey Parker in October 2021) died in March 2022 following an 18-month battle with stage four glioblastoma. He said after his diagnosis that he was ‘shocked’ at the limited treatment options for GBM and ‘massive improvements’ were needed<\/p>\n

Average survival time for glioblastoma is between 12 and 18 months, according to the Brain Tumour Charity. Only 5 per cent of patients survive five years, it says.<\/p>\n

The disease killed the Labour politician Dame Tessa Jowell in 2018.<\/p>\n

In 2023 , The Wanted singer Tom Parker also died following an 18-month battle with stage four glioblastoma.<\/p>\n

He said after his diagnosis that he was ‘shocked’ at the limited treatment options for GBM and ‘massive improvements’ were needed.<\/p>\n

Diagnosed patients usually undergo surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible.<\/p>\n

This is followed by daily radiation and chemo drugs for around six weeks, after which the drugs are scaled back.<\/p>\n

Radiation can be then used to destroy additional tumour cells and treat those who are not well enough for surgery.<\/p>\n

But the cancer can double in size in just seven weeks.<\/p>\n

For comparison, the fastest-growing lung cancers take 14 weeks to double.<\/p>\n

Common symptoms include headaches that keep getting worse, nausea and vomiting, blurred or double vision, trouble speaking, altered sense of touch, and seizures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ‘fit and healthy’ father received a devastating cancer diagnosis after a bizarre symptom triggered a trip to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,104,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-17826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nhs","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}