A man given little hope of recovering from a brain tumour is taking a chance on new treatment.

Colin Brayshay, a 41-year-old long distance lorry driver, agreed to be a guinea pig for a new drug hailed as the biggest breakthrough in brain cancer treatment for over 20 years.

Back in the summer, Colin, of Montgomery Street, Skipton, lay in a hospital bed facing the daunting task of telling his family he was dying.

Doctors had told him they could not operate on his tumour and he and his wife, Linda, were gearing up to tell their sons Jimmy, 13, and 11-year-old Lee just how poorly their dad was.

The cancer had left him virtually paralysed down one side of his body and he was suffered from blinding headaches.

"I really thought I'd had it," he said. "But taking the tablets has changed my life completely."

After three tablets a day of the new drug called Temozolomide, Colin made a remarkable recovery as his body started to return to normal.

Now the Skipton man has helped to pioneer a treatment which was licensed by the NHS last month and could give a glimmer of hope to hundreds of cancer patients nationwide.

His tumour was discovered in 1990 after he suffered two fits in one day. The first happened as he was taking his lorry through rush-hour traffic in London.

He had to endure 30 hours of radiotherapy and four operations, but two years later the fits returned, followed by a brain haemorrhage three years later.

It was then he was told the shocking news that despite the skill of today's surgeons, they couldn't do any more for him.

"They asked me if I was willing to try this new drug and I said I was willing to try anything. After all, it's better than nothing," said Colin.

His illness had left his arms and legs extremely weak and his face had dropped down the left side. But after taking Temozolomide for three weeks he got the feeling back in his limbs and his face was back to normal.

Colin is still undergoing traditional treatment at the area's specialist cancer hospital at Cookridge in Leeds, as well as taking the new tablets.

Scans shown to him by doctors reveal the startling news that his tumour is getting smaller.

"It's definitely shrunk it,'' he said. "When I first saw the scans I felt such a feeling of relief. The tablets are doing me some good."

Temozolomide is an expensive treatment but it's now available on the NHS for patients with the most common and deadly form of brain cancer which affects around 2,000 people in the UK every year. Drug trials shrank tumours in five out of ten cases.

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