Phantom smells were the warning sign that led a father-of-two to his brain tumour diagnosis.
Neil Danziger, of Queen’s Park, thought he might have a blood blockage when he first sought help for his symptoms, which started in December 2020.
At the time he would get light-headed easily and needed to sit down.
But most alarmingly he began to notice strong smells which did not exist, with the nasal hallucinations lasting for around for 10 seconds.
After having a low-grade tumour surgically removed, the tumour was found to have surrounding cells from a mutated gene more commonly found in more serious tumours, which led doctors to recommend a more aggressive treatment plan.
The 47-year-old went on to have six weeks of combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy, followed by six more months of chemo.
Mr Danziger recalled: “Being diagnosed initially was a shock but I felt as optimistic as I possibly could because it was so small, only 1cm. I’d heard of people having plum or apple-size tumours and I had a pea, so I thought ‘I have a pea, I can do this’.
“I felt surprised but ready for battle – my game face came out.”
Since then the survivor has gone on to raise £16,000 for Brain Tumour Research, which he hopes will make a “life-changing” difference finding better treatments for other people.
On Wednesday (February 8), Mr Danziger visited the charity’s Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University with his wife Victoria, where they placed six tiles on a “wall of hope”, each tile representing the £2,740 it costs to fund a day of research.
After the visit, he said: “It was emotional placing tiles on the Wall of Hope and heartening to hear from the scientists about the work being done in their quest to find a cure. It has made me even more committed to carrying out further fundraising in the future.”
Charlie Allsebrook, community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said: “We’re really grateful to Neil for all his fundraising so far and hope that his and Victoria’s visit to our Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University of London offered a useful insight into all we’re doing to improve treatment options for patients and, ultimately, find a cure.”
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