A DAD of four had his world turned upside down after headaches turned out to be brain cancer.

After suffering from headaches for weeks and falling sick, Damien Roberts was diagnosed with a Grade 3 brain tumour – known as anaplastic astrocytoma.

The news stunned Damien and his wife Samantha, who are parents to four young children aged one, four, six and eight.

The 30-year-old, who was forced to stop working as a heating engineer, said he was first told by doctors he was having migraines.

“I just got headaches and so I just thought I got migraines, that’s what they [doctors] said it was,” he said. “I tried to get a scan and they wouldn’t give me one.”

His wife Samantha was worried for her husband’s health and called an ambulance in January.

The 36-year-old said: “We knew there was something wrong, because these headaches put him to the floor and he was constantly told he’s got migraines, which he never suffered from before.

“And he is a fit, healthy young man, and he never goes to the doctor. He was told a scan wasn’t needed.

“And then January 20 is when Damien took a turn for the worse. I called an ambulance because he was all disorientated and was being sick.”

Damien was taken to the hospital and following a scan, doctors found a large mass on the left frontal lobe of his brain.

She added: “He was then transferred to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and where an MRI scan was done, and they found there was a cyst growing on the tumour. They removed the cyst, which was the size of a golf ball and a biopsy was done.”

Two weeks after the surgery, they received the results confirming the brain cancer.

Damien said: “After the first surgery, I stayed in hospital for a few days, and then they let me home. They rung us and explained us what I’ve got. It was the biggest shock.”

He underwent an operation on February 26 to remove the tumour and will now undergo radiotherapy along with chemotherapy.

He said: “The radiotherapy starts in April and that’s for six weeks every day and that’s in Oxford. And then I have 12 months of chemotherapy after that. We are nervous about it all.”

The couple decided not to tell their children about the diagnosis.

Damien added: “They are too young. They think I’m alright.”

The family from Penhill had just sold their house as they were in need of a bigger home – but following Damien’s diagnosis they decided to pull out.

“We had accepted an offer within four days,” Samantha said. “We got the asking price for the house and then everything just was like a whirlwind.

“After that diagnosis, our whole world has turned upside down. We pulled out of the house sale just because of the uncertainty of everything and Damien can’t work at the moment.”

They moved into Samantha’s mum’s house for help with the children during Damien’s treatment.

Their friend Samantha Can set up a GoFundMe to raise £65,000 in a bid to turn their two-bedroom home into a four-bed.

On the webpage, their friend wrote: “We would love to help and raise some funds to have their house extended for the family to return and stay in their home.

“Not only that but funds to help the family along this long hard road. It’s very uncertain times with Damien too unwell to work and Samantha having to put her work on the back burner to be his carer.”

If you would like to donate to the GoFundMe, click here.