Health

Dunmurry Dipper's cold water spotlight on rare brain cancer

Dunmurry Dipper Peter Gilgunn was shocked to find how poorly funded glioblastoma is in Northern Ireland. After his father was diagnosed with the rare brain cancer he tells Gail Bell how he took to cold water therapy to raise funds and awareness

A RARE form of brain cancer which has been underfunded in Northern Ireland - and remains largely under the public radar - has been highlighted thanks to a year-long cold water challenge by Dunmurry's Peter Gilgunn.

The father-of-two and member of the Dunmurry Dippers swimming club has raised more than £2,500 and brought glioblastoma under the spotlight after posts of his 7am daily dips in the Colin Glen River went viral on social media.

"The money will go towards the work of The Brain Tumour Charity which is dedicated to funding research into brain tumours, raising awareness and providing support to patients and their families," says Peter, who completed his 365th fundraising 'dip' at the beginning of December.

The BT accounts director, whose father, Tom Gilgunn, died in May after being diagnosed with glioblastoma a year ago, is also hoping his challenge will lead to improved services for Northern Ireland patients suffering from the disease.

"I would really like to see some mechanism for people here to get treated and diagnosed in a better format than they currently do because what I have learned is that we are at least five years behind the UK system," he says.

"How we diagnose in Northern Ireland and the machinery used... I was surprised to find how far behind we are. If we don't have some of the imaging machines, then we don't have the expert people trained in using them, so the machinery and personnel are inextricably linked – if we don't have one, we don't have the other.

"When I took on the mantle of trying to get my dad better treatment, I found that Northern Ireland is hugely underfunded, even compared to the rest of the UK, so as a first step, I would like to see some sort of system to allow people here to get access to treatment in Britain. Diagnosis is quicker and treatment – depending on where you live in England – can be more more advanced, too."

In Mr Gilgunn senior's case, Peter said the diagnosis came about after he was scanned to confirm an earlier diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and at that point doctors detected a mass on the brain.

"It was a weird cycle of events," he says, "and among the medical profession there is some suspicion that there may be a link between the two conditions but no-one really knows, because there is so little research work done into this type of brain cancer.

"Because it is so rare, it doesn't get a lot of funding and because survival rates are so poor, it gets even less. To find a cure, you would have to invest huge amounts, so it's a vicious circle. The stats on glioblastoma are way below one per cent surviving more than six months."

Mr Gilgunn, who was just in his early seventies, did survive, with radiotherapy treatment, for the optimum six months and was still working – at a senior level in the Northern Ireland Civil Service - up until his diagnosis last November.

"He was very stoical about it all and opted to extend his life with radiotherapy, but the diagnosis and its poor prognosis was a shock to all of us," says Peter, who never told his dad about his fundraising and awareness challenge – "in case I never completed it".

He need not have worried – on days away with work or while on holiday with his wife, the cold water therapy continued, whether or not he was able to join the Dunmurry Dippers in the "plunge pool" at the Colin Glen river near Dunmurry.

"Daily cold water immersion was what I set out to do for a year, that was my gig, so I still had ice-cold baths when I was away from home," he explains.

"I wasn't with the guys in the river, but I improvised – once when I was away with my wife, I ordered four buckets of ice up to our hotel room. When they arrived, I said, 'That's not enough, I need more.'

"The whole idea was not to break the cycle, so I sat in iced baths in the hotel for the same amount of time I would normally be in the river - about eight to 12 minutes is when you usually hit the 'sweet spot'."

Physical benefits of cold water swimming have been well documented, but Peter and the Dunmurry Dippers chat more than swim, the challenge being anchored in cold water therapy and cold water "dipping".

A former Irish League footballer, he believes team sport has helped with discipline for the challenge and a determination to keep going, but it isn't all shivering pain: "Cold water – the Colin Glen is a mountain-fed river, so it's generally four or five degrees colder than sea water – almost gives you a natural 'high'.

"There is a 400 per cent increase in the brain chemical, dopamine within about three-to-four minutes; it raises serotonin levels too, makes our circulatory system more efficient and is good for muscles.

"Some members of the Dippers swim, but really, we just chat and the whole thing has morphed into a bit of a men's shed sort of thing – in water.

"We talk, we say what is worrying us – nothing is off limits – and we have a thing called 'Hugs on Friday', so our early morning dips have become a sort of unofficial mental health therapy. I think it has definitely helped with my own grieving process."

Even when emerging from the river, Peter didn't indulge in a hot shower afterwards – a cold shower was his way of ending the dip - and now, even though he has completed the 365-day goal, he intends to keep going.

"When I set out to do this, it was more or less just to say, 'Hey, guys, glioblastoma exists and this is what you need to know about it...'," he says. "I really hadn't expected so much interest, but it has been great.

"I think I will keep going – it has been a great focus for me and I hope it helps everyone touched by this awful disease."

:: Find Dunmurry Dippers on Facebook - facebook.com/DunmurryDippers

:: The Brain Tumour Charity has more information about glioblastoma and other forms of brain tumour. Thebraintumourcharity.org