A father who collapsed on a sweltering summer's day and was initially diagnosed as merely "dehydrated" was given just a few years when the real issue was discovered. Joshua Baines, 34, had been experiencing increasing forgetfulness before his four-year-old daughter found him unconscious and bloodied in 2021, following a seizure.

The vicar from Esher, Surrey, was swiftly taken to hospital, but he claims that doctors attributed the seizure to dehydration. However, after suffering another seizure a few weeks later, a CT scan revealed a brain tumour.

By 2022, it was confirmed to be aggressive and terminal. Josh was given a prognosis of just a few years, but his body responded better than anticipated to chemotherapy, something he described as an "answer to my prayers".

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Yet, by October 2025, he was informed that the cancer had spread to the back of his brain. Josh is now raising funds for a treatment that could slow the progression of the cancer and afford him more time with his children.

The father-of-three said: "I noticed something was wrong when I kept forgetting the lyrics to songs in church. I'd be leading the team and then I would just forget what was happening next, or where I was, it was so unlike me.

"One morning I remember walking into the bathroom and starting to clean my teeth and then I just felt so dizzy. I felt like I was somewhere else, like the dreamworld in Stranger Things.

"I passed out and my four-year-old daughter found me covered in blood on the floor. Doctors said I was just dehydrated, but over the next few weeks I kept having horrific auras.

"I'd sweat like crazy, and I'd sit up in bed and I could almost see a figure in the doorway. It would happen when I was dropping off to sleep, it scared the life out of me.

"A few weeks later I had another seizure and then I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. When I got diagnosed it felt horrific, I just completely shut down and felt so numb.

"Doctors told me the cancer was spreading really quickly and that it was terminal, I fell off my chair and passed out, my wife was in pieces. Going through treatment is a bit like a McDonald's drive-through, you go in, do your scan and they tell you if your cancer is better or worse and how long you're going to live.

"As a family, we just have to pretend things are normal, but it's so hard. One of the hardest parts has been explaining things to our children in a way they can understand.

"We call MRI scans the 'doughnut machine' and when there was new growth found, we described it as an extra sprinkle on the doughnut. Sitting around the dinner table and answering questions honestly, including questions about death, forces you to hold hope and realism at the same time.

"As a parent, you realise very quickly that cancer isn't just something happening in your body, it reshapes the emotional life of a home.. My faith hasn't removed the difficulty, but it has given me something to stand on when things feel uncertain."

Josh has lived with an overwhelming fear of cancer throughout his life, having witnessed its impact on his grandparents during his childhood. As a teenager, this anxiety was so severe that he would vomit every morning.

The first indication that something was amiss came when he started forgetting song lyrics whilst leading worship at church. As his condition deteriorated, Josh began suffering from severe headaches and, midway through performing, would suddenly lose all sense of where he was or what was happening. Then, on a summer morning in 2021, Josh was struck by extreme dizziness.

He subsequently experienced an aura, a phenomenon that occurs before a seizure and triggers unusual sensations, emotions and visual disturbances. Josh lost consciousness and struck his head on the door frame before collapsing onto the floor.

His daughter discovered him lying on the ground covered in blood and immediately alerted her mother, Daisy, that Josh had lost consciousness. Daisy wasted no time in calling an ambulance and Josh was rushed to hospital, where medical staff suggested he was likely just "dehydrated".

Given that Josh had spent the previous evening at the pub with mates and it had been a scorching summer's day, he accepted that dehydration was probably the cause and returned home. Nevertheless, over the following weeks, Josh began experiencing frequent "horrific" auras, during which he would hallucinate someone standing at the foot of his bed.

Several weeks following his first seizure, Josh experienced another episode whilst in bed with his wife. Daisy immediately contacted emergency services and Josh was transported back to hospital, where medical professionals conducted a CT scan.

The scan revealed a substantial tumour on his brain, leading to an eventual diagnosis of an astrocytoma terminal brain tumour. Josh subsequently underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, which managed to control the cancer temporarily.

Nevertheless, following an MRI scan in October 2025, he received the devastating news that the cancer had progressed to the back of his brain. The disease is now causing Josh to lose his eyesight and surgeons are unable to operate on the tumour, though they have proposed a treatment called Bevacizumab, which should decelerate its progression, affording him additional time with loved ones.

The treatment, however, is not covered by the NHS and carries a cost of £9,042 every eight weeks. Josh has launched a GoFundMe page in an effort to raise funds for the treatment, enabling him to create more precious moments with his family.