After returning home from hospital, Charlie Lock was told he had two weeks to live – but five months later, he still finds his “last wishes” to fulfill.
Not only has he battled an aggressive and rare terminal brain cancer, but he has also fought to regain movement in his body after devastating seizures that left him in a coma, caused by medical interventions.
Despite his health, he married his childhood sweetheart, traveled to Norway, and fulfilled a “lifelong dream” to ask Sir Tim Berners-Lee a question about how he created the World Wide Web.
The 19-year-old wants to spend time with his new wife in his arms, to fulfill his promise of a skydive.
“I was upset that I had broken the promise I had made to Judy that I would be with her forever,” he said.
“I intend to spend every second I have left breathing air with him and my family.”
“This was, and is, my oath.”
Marrying my girlfriend was ‘the best day of my life’, says a teenager with cancer, from Merthyr Tydfil, enjoying his first year studying cyber security at the University of Gloucester, after achieving four A-level grades and securing a prestigious scholarship.
Since he has autism, living independently alongside his girlfriend Judy was a milestone.
“The only thing I worried about was what was in the fridge,” he said.
Then came the headaches and vomiting.
His mother, Cerys Lock, remembers him describing a “sense of impending doom” that he couldn’t explain.
In November, he was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in the emergency room.
Scans revealed a tumor later diagnosed as a grade four glioblastoma – an aggressive brain cancer that the family says doctors rarely encounter in someone Charlie’s age.
“The person who did the scan looked at the sheet and turned white as a sheet,” Charlie recalled.
“The look he gave me was a look of pure horror. It was like he had seen a ghost.”
It was news no mother expects for her teenage son.
“That day was devastating,” Cerys said. “Absolutely devastating.”
The boy underwent surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but his condition continued to deteriorate.
Then, on February 13, he suffered about 10 seizures and was rushed to the hospital, where he was placed in a medically induced coma.
“The consultant’s words were ‘there’s no way he’s going to wake up from this,’” Cerys said.
“Guess what? He woke up.”
Within hours, Charlie was awake and struggling to get out of bed.
Cerys laughed as she remembered what happened next.
“The doctor pulled the curtain back and sat there on his hand,” she says.
He said ‘in all my years working in ITU, I have never seen a patient like this eating a full McDonald’s’.
Just two weeks later, on March 16, the couple married.
“I am a survivor,” the teenager says.
“There have been many times when I have been told by doctors several times that I would die very soon,” said Charlie.
“I never imagined I would have to deal with this so early. I wish I had discovered it after I had the chance to live a life.”
“Starting a family was something we had always wanted,” said his partner, Judy.