A man with cancer who was given just one year to live in 2005 is still alive today – 18 years later.
The 30-year-old, from Nashville, shared his story on Reddit, telling how he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor at the age of 12.
Doctors at the time predicted ‘he would only live a year or two’ – even with surgery and treatment.
The man, claimed he was even granted his last wish by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which saw his family flown to Hawaii on vacation.
The cancer survivor, who is married with two children, now says he works at the hospital where he was diagnosed and treated as a child.
Describing his story on a discussion site, the man says he was diagnosed with pilomyxoid astrocytoma in 2005 as a child.
The aggressive cancer, which has poor survival rates, usually affects very young children, with the average age of diagnosis being 18 months, according to a 2004 study published in the UK journal Medscape General Medicine.
Delayed growth, vomiting, feeding problems and weakness are all telltale signs, along with neck stiffness or head tilt.
The man, by the username SilentWalrus92, said his main symptom was illness, which doctors initially dismissed as a stomach bug.
But after his parents took him to the emergency department, tests revealed he had a brain tumor.
He underwent surgery. As a result of his treatment, he suffered short-term memory loss, which he says makes it difficult to remember people’s names or what he ate.
He was granted his last wish – a family vacation to Maui in Hawaii – through the Make A Wish Foundation, with the expectation that he would not live more than two years.
But, contrary to doctor’s expectations, the man is still alive almost two decades later.
He claimed that his doctors gave the wrong prognosis because he was only one in four people worldwide diagnosed with cancer as of 2005.