Inoperable Brain Tumours Puts Out Achie Goodburn From Summer Olympics
aritish swimmer Archie Goodburn has revealed he has been diagnosed with inoperable brain tumours.
The 23-year-old, from Edinburgh, started suffering from numbness and seizures in the build-up to the Olympics trials – where he missed out on qualification by a narrow margin.
But tests carried out after the trials found three large oligodendrogliomas – a rare type of cancer which can affect the brain and spinal cord.
The nature of the tumours makes surgery to remove the tumours impossible, with Goodburn now facing chemotherapy and radiotherapy to try and treat them.
“Six weeks ago, my life experienced a profound change as I was diagnosed with three brain tumours,” he wrote on his Instagram.
“In December 2023, my training began to be interrupted by strange episodes. These episodes, initially thought to be hemiplegic migraines, would occur during hard training.
“They would leave me with a loss of strength and a numb sensation on my left side, a deep feeling of fear, nausea and extreme deja vu. I now know that these were in fact seizures.
“With the trials behind me, I dug deeper into what was really causing these attacks. An MRI in May finally revealed what I’d begun to fear the most.”
Goodburn represented Scotland at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and won bronze in the men’s 50m breaststroke at the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships.
He said he would now be undergoing medical treatment to try and combat the tumours.
“The silver lining to this diagnosis is that oligodendrogliomas generally respond better to radiotherapy and chemotherapy than many other serious brain tumour types,” he said.
“I am young, I am fit, I have the most phenomenal support network of friends, the best family I could ever hope for and a fantastic girlfriend by my side.
“I am determined to take this head-on, to remain positive and to keep being Archie.”
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