![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/billy-and-jesse-with-their-three-year-old-son-roman-W475S22VOFAFBDMP2763SO4UL4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn Auckland father says he has “never had more to live for” after being diagnosed with a brain tumour just weeks before the birth of his twin daughters.<\/p>\n
When Billy Samountry was diagnosed with a Grade 3 brain tumour, his partner Jesse was preparing to give birth while the couple cared for their three-year-old son Roman. <\/p>\n
The diagnosis would be life-changing for any family. For Billy and Jesse, it came after a year already marked by heartbreak.<\/p>\n
Last year, the couple lost their daughter Rhea after a pregnancy complicated by a rare immune condition that caused Jesse\u2019s body to attack the unborn baby. <\/p>\n
The condition was only identified after Rhea\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
“There are no words for that kind of loss,\u201d Billy wrote in an online post. <\/p>\n
“Only those who have been through it will understand the particular silence it leaves behind.”<\/p>\n
When the couple later learned they were expecting twins, Jesse underwent weekly immunotherapy treatment throughout the pregnancy to reduce the risk of the same complications occurring again.<\/p>\n
Every Friday, she spent around eight hours at Auckland Hospital receiving an IVIG infusion.<\/p>\n
“She did that for pretty much the entire pregnancy,” Billy said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Billy and Jesse with their three-year-old son Roman. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
While Jesse continued to navigate another difficult pregnancy, Billy was dealing with health concerns of his own. <\/p>\n
Around September last year Billy began experiencing neurological symptoms, including foot drop and seizures, affecting the right side of his body. <\/p>\n
Despite numerous tests and hospital visits, doctors were unable to determine the cause.<\/p>\n
Seizure<\/p>\n
Then, while staying in hospital with Jesse before the twins were born, Billy suffered a seizure that was unlike the others. <\/p>\n
“I vomited, passed out, woke up. They rushed me to do an MRI, and then they found the tumour,” he said. <\/p>\n
Doctors diagnosed him with a Grade 3 astrocytoma in the left frontal lobe of his brain.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks later, the couple welcomed twin daughters Lyra Mae and Juniper Mira into the world. Their birth brought relief, but not without further challenges.<\/p>\n
One of the babies required neonatal care, while Jesse experienced serious bowel complications that kept the family in hospital for eight days.<\/p>\n
At home, the couple\u2019s toddler Roman was eagerly waiting to meet the twins.<\/p>\n
“Watching him meet his sisters for the first time is something I\u2019ll carry with me always,” Billy recalled.<\/p>\n
He said that experience had given him a different perspective on the challenges ahead. <\/p>\n
“So here I am, figuring out how to be present for a toddler and two newborns and face a brain tumour diagnosis, all at once,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“I have never had more to live for.”<\/p>\n
![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/billy-and-jesse-with-their-twin-daughters-3UFQFHWNZZGJ7MRSNG5VQO5SV4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Billy and Jesse with their twin daughters. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Support from family and friends <\/p>\n
As the family adjusted to life with newborn twins and Billy\u2019s diagnosis, friends, workmates and strangers began offering support.<\/p>\n