A young Calgary couple is staying strong through their battle with brain cancer

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A young Calgary couple, Jeff Bock and Lauren Anderson, stayed positive during Jeff's battle with brain cancer.

Faced with limited treatment options in Canada, the couple is now exploring the possibility of costly clinical trials in the US.

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The couple has raised more than $90,000 for Jeff's treatment through GoFundMe, with a goal of $200,000.

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“The community around us has been really special, and we're not alone in this,” Anderson said.

“We've been very well taken care of in Calgary, but there are a lot of options outside of Canada.”

With the money raised so far, they have applied for three clinical trials, with consultations alone costing $29,000.

Dr. Jennifer Chan, who was not involved in Jeff's treatment, is a neurologist specializing in oncology at the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute at the University of Calgary. He said there are many types of tests in Canada, but they are not the same or the same as in the U.S. for a variety of reasons.

Many of the most interesting clinical trials are for immunotherapies, Chan said: “They can only be in very specialized centers that can use, say, the whole country.”

The painful headaches were initially thought to be migraines

After dating for two years, Jeff, now 33, and Anderson, 27, decided to move in together in October 2022. During their big move, Jeff began to suffer from severe headaches.

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Jeff said he thought the headache was a migraine – that would be better than the truth.

“After we moved in, I complained of headaches, and I lost my balance a few times,” she said.

Anderson said they're keeping a close eye on him after clearing it as a headache for several weeks.

“One night he was in a lot of pain and his speech started to get really bad – that's when we decided we needed to go to the hospital,” he said.

It was October 16, 2022, when Anderson took Jeff to the Peter Lloyd Center when a CT scan revealed a mass on his brain.

They were then taken to Foothills Medical Center for further imaging.

“They just said, 'It's not good news,'” Anderson said.

After an overnight wait in the foothills, the doctor gave Jeff the news around 7 a.m. The diagnosis was grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma.

The doctor gave him three months to live without surgery, and 18 months if he decided to have surgery.

“And then I went – oh – and then I think I started crying,” she said.

“Whatever time we have left, we must live the best life we ​​can.”

The news was devastating for Jeff's parents, Marlene and Les, with Marlene calling it “the worst day ever”.

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Anderson said, “At first I felt like I was being punished, why should we have this?”

“We are too young to be thrust into this world.”

Marlene asked Jeff to operate. “We need to live the best life we ​​can at any given time.”

He underwent brain surgery in November 2022, which required him to be awake for nine hours while the surgeons worked.

Anderson recalled telling Jeff to count to 20 repeatedly during the procedure so he wouldn't touch the “bad parts.”

“His tumor was in or near the speech center, so that was their biggest concern,” he said.

They were able to remove 99 percent of the tumor with the first operation. A few months later, her cancer returned.

He underwent various chemotherapy treatments throughout the battle, which were able to slow but not stop the cancer from spreading.

According to Chan, brain cancer is one of the rarest diseases overall, accounting for less than one percent of all cancers.

Jeff's second diagnosis was grade four glioblastoma (GBM4), which affects only 4 in every 100,000 Canadians, while breast cancer affects 68 per 100,000 and prostate cancer 125 per 100,000.

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According to Chan, if someone were to be diagnosed with GBM4 today, their life expectancy would be about 12 to 14 months. This is for those who have undergone surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy.

“It's a disease with a very poor prognosis, one of the worst of all cancers,” Chan said.

The treatment of brain cancer has progressed slowly, says the doctor

What's frustrating for patients and health care providers is that there haven't been significant advances in therapy over the years, Chan said, with many increasing life expectancy by 12 to 14 months.

“We need a big change in survival, and that certainly requires a lot of research.”

Chan says one of the challenges with glioblastoma is that most chemotherapy chemicals for other diseases affect the blood-brain barrier, making it difficult for the molecules to reach the cancer.

After the relapse, Jeff was stable for about six months, and he even went back to business school. About a semester later, he had to withdraw from medical appointments pending another surgery.

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On February 5 of this year, surgeons were only able to remove 70 percent of the tumor without affecting Jeff's mobility or anything else that would affect his quality of life.

She also experienced symptoms such as memory loss and seizures that depressed her mood. “I had to go to the doctors and he put me on anti-depressants – it's funny.”

Besides, he was always tired, Anderson said.

Despite the cancer, Anderson said it brought many people around her together.

“Our relationship has grown so deep that I think it would.

“We still put fun and each other first because we want to enjoy the time we have.”

It was a difficult situation for them because of the situation.

“We are very young, so everyone around us is moving on with their lives,” he said.

Jeff has a 9-year-old daughter from a previous relationship who lives with his mother in Kamloops.

Marlene said Jeff still sees his daughter often. “He knows he has a brain tumor, and I don't know if he fully understands, but he does.”

The couple also launched a TikTok page to share Jeff's story, which has received over a million views to date.

Marlene: “Lauren and Jeff are amazing. Lauren is just a rock and I'm in awe of her every day, she's been through this with so much resilience and love.”

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