A strong and healthy father with stage 4 cancer alleges that after a dreadful chemo reaction made him too embarrassed to attend his young son’s cricket matches, he was transformed into the “Nightmare on Elm Street.” He is now hoping that a groundbreaking immunization may save his life.

Geoffrey Seymour, a 41-year-old procurement specialist who enjoyed basketball, cricket, and tennis, never had any health issues until a few weeks before his 41st birthday, when he noticed blood in his stools.

Geoffrey immediately saw his doctor since, according to television advertising, he was aware that this was a sign of cancer.

Geoffrey, who lives in Richmond, London, with his wife Santa, 44, and their son Marco, 10, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to his liver. Because his situation was so bad and looked hopeless, Geoffrey compared it to “being wrapped in a paper bag that is on fire.”

In addition, he had a terrible reaction to the chemotherapy, which left his face covered in severe blisters and gave him the appearance of Freddy Krueger from the 1984 horror film Nightmare on Elm Street, according to Geoffrey.

Geoffrey flew to Germany for dendritic cell treatment, which involves creating a personalized vaccine in a lab with the purpose of activating the immune system, in an attempt to save his life after chemotherapy failed.

Because research in this sector is in its early stages, the therapy was costly, according to Cancer Research UK. One injection, given on October 17 in Germany, cost £17,000, and Geoffrey is now waiting to find out if it was enough to help him while still looking for funding.

He added, “I couldn’t even wait until the fundraising was over to get it done because I was so terrified the virus would spread.”

Geoffrey was determined to adopt a fresh technique after three sessions of five doses of chemotherapy failed to provide the expected results and left him with side effects so severe that he was unable to watch his little son play cricket in public.

The man claimed, “I had a very awful reaction in my face, and it was covered in severe blistering that made my face feel like it was on fire.”

“I recently reached the point where I began to resemble a Nightmare on Elm Street character.” People would come up to me and ask, “What’s wrong with this guy?” while I’m pretty happy to blend in with the crowd, unless I came there with a sack on my head.

Geoffrey was diagnosed with cancer just two weeks before his 41st birthday on March 4, 2021, and his battle began.

Following his diagnosis in March 2021, he underwent five cycles of chemotherapy every three weeks, which initially helped to reduce the lesions in his liver. He believes he was “optimistic” at the time.

In December 2021, he had surgery to remove a third of his liver, and doctors began prepping him for radiotherapy to be used on his colon.

He received more chemotherapy after a scan indicated new liver tumors a month later. Because things went well this time, liver surgery was scheduled for June 2022.

However, just when things appeared to be getting better, a scan a few weeks before surgery revealed sickness progression. The surgery was postponed, and Geoffrey’s chemotherapy was restarted with a different medicine.

After only two cycles, blood tests and a scan revealed that Geoffrey’s disease had progressed once again and the side effects were becoming unpleasant.

He continued, “The side effects have gotten worse and worse, and chemotherapy is now just ineffectual since the body has grown accustomed to it.”

He claimed that the chemotherapy treatment “essentially destroys all your fast-growing cells, including your cancer cells, but also your hair and nails,” which explains why he had a poor reaction to it. ” That resulted in a very uncomfortable reaction on my face.”

Geoffrey began doing his own research online, looking for alternatives, and discovered dendritic cell therapy, only to discover that it was not available in the UK.

On October 17, 2022, he decided to fly to a facility in Ulm, Germany, for the seven-day therapy. Family and friends contributed to his Go Fund Me effort, which raised over £14,000 and paid for the $17,000 injection.

He continued, “I’m trying to find a good mix of pretty strong drugs because I’m still in a lot of pain.”

Geoffrey is set to visit his oncologist in the UK on November 1, but he is still gathering funds in case he needs to travel abroad for additional vaccinations and treatment.

Caroline Geraghty, a specialist cancer information nurse at Cancer Research UK, explained: “Dendritic cell therapy is a type of vaccine that can treat cancer.” Dendritic cells help the immune system recognize and destroy abnormal cells such as cancer cells.

“To develop the vaccine, dendritic cells and cancer cells are cultured together in a lab.” The vaccine then stimulates your immune system to fight cancer. Because research is ongoing, the evidence base is not yet substantial enough to be made available in the UK.

Patients should consult their doctor about any alternative treatments they are contemplating, as decisions about the best course of therapy must be founded on reliable evidence of benefit.

“Many innovative cancer drugs continue to show success in clinical trials, providing potential options for cancer patients,” he added.

“However, while the rate at which regulators assess these for routine NHS use has sped up, there are still situations when specific medicines aren’t yet easily available for those who could benefit.” We understand how inconvenient this can be.