Singer Tom Parker, best known for his work with the successful British boyband The Wanted, announced on social media that he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor after suffering multiple seizures.
“There’s no easy way to say this but I’ve sadly been diagnosed with a brain tumour and I’m already undergoing treatment,” Parker wrote in an Instagram post.
“We decided, after a lot of thought, that rather than hiding away and trying to keep it a secret, we would do one interview where we could lay out all the details and let everyone know the facts in our own way.”
Parker ultimately grant one interview with the UK publication OK! Magazine, where he detailed his Glioblastoma diagnosis and candidly recalled getting the news. He described having a seizure several weeks ago while on vacation with his wife and 16-month-old daughter. He detailed going to the hospital where he received the news.
“They pulled the curtain around my bed and said, ‘It’s a brain tumour.’ All I could think was, ‘Fucking hell!’ I was in shock. It’s stage four glioblastoma and they’ve said its terminal,” he said in the interview.
Parker’s wife, actress Kelsey Hardwick, was not allowed to be in the room with him when he received the news of his diagnosis due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“It was a lot to deal with by myself. I still haven’t processed it,” he recalled.
In the Instagram post, Parker assured fans that while he and his family were devastated by the diagnosis, they were determined to fight the cancer as hard as possible.
“We are all absolutely devastated but we are gonna fight this all the way,” he wrote. “We don’t want your sadness, we just want love and positivity and together we will raise awareness of this terrible disease and look for all available treatment options. It’s gonna be a tough battle but with everyone’s love and support we are going to beat this.”
Hardwick told OK! Magazine that she and her husband decided not to ask about a timeframe for potential growth of the stage four tumor, opting to focus solely on pursuing treatment as aggressively as possible.
“I said that for Tom’s state of mind, and who he is as a person, that would not be good for him,” Hardwick said. “He would literally sit here and count down the days and not live his life.”
The singer added that there have been instances of Glioblastoma patients living for many years with a stage four diagnosis.
“There are so many stories of people who were given a bad prognosis and are still here five, 10, even 15 years later,” he said. “We’re going to fight this all the way.”
Glioblastoma is the same type of brain tumor that the late Senator John McCain suffered with for several years. In the music world, legendary singer Gord Downie, of Canadian rock icons The Tragically Hip, also had Glioblastoma and famously embarked on a massively successful Canadian stadium tour with his band following his diagnosis and prior to his death in 2017.
In the OK! Magazine interview, Hardwick emphasized that Parker’s bandmates in The Wanted had been incredibly supportive of their friend.
“Siva [Kaneswaran] and Nathan [Sykes] obviously live a lot further away, but all four of the boys have been texting regularly and sending through different articles and possible treatments and therapies that they’re all reading about. They’ve been amazing,” she said.
