‘I feel deeply for Tom, I had a brain tumour too, but I was one of the lucky ones’ says supermodel Caprice
THERE can be few people whose heart didn’t go out to The Wanted singer Tom Parker after he revealed this week that he had terminal brain cancer.
But for supermodel and entrepreneur Caprice Bourret, the news was particularly heartbreaking.
Three years ago, at the age of 45, the mum of two was also told she had a brain tumour, requiring risky surgery to remove it. While it was not cancerous, she lives with the fear it might return. It’s one reason why Caprice got in touch with 32-year-old Tom and his wife Kelsey, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child.
He wrote a moving statement on social media explaining how he had been told he had a stage four glioblastoma tumour — an aggressive cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord.
The average life expectancy for someone with such an illness ranges from three to 18 months after diagnosis.
Tom has begun radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Caprice messaged the couple to offer support and says: “It felt like the right thing to do. I don’t know him, but I felt deeply for him because I’ve been right there.”
For Caprice — mum to seven-year-old sons Jax and Jett — Tom’s news is a reminder of the indiscriminate nature of brain tumours.
She says: “Most people have no idea that brain cancer is the top cancer killer of those under 40.”
As patron of the charity Brain Tumour Research, she has bonded with other tumour sufferers, including nurse and mum Gemma Edgar, who died in 2018 aged 33.
The two became close and Caprice often visited her in the hospice, where she eventually lost her fight for life.
Caprice says: “It was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve seen. Gemma was such a fighter, she was an inspiration, but in the end she couldn’t combat this horrible disease.
“She was so brave and never wanted anyone to feel sorry for her. Until you’ve seen someone go through this you have no idea how horrible it is.’’
Around 32 people a day are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour in the UK, and more than 5,000 people a year die from it.
'I was in shock'
In January 2017 Caprice started to get headaches and blurred vision while taking part in Channel 4 reality winter sports show The Jump in Austria.
She says: “At first it was a case of ‘I just need some more headache pills’ — I honestly thought all the things I was feeling was because I’d fallen over 1,000 times and hit my head. But the show’s health and safety team insisted I had to get tested.”
Scans showed she had a brain tumour.
She says: “I was completely floored. I’d never really had anything wrong with my health.
“I was in shock. I couldn’t process it. You hear those words and the connotations are so frightening.
I remember crying and screaming like someone was murdering me
Caprice Bourret
“My boys were so young and all I could think was that I was going to die. They didn’t know if my tumour was benign or malignant — terms I didn’t even understand at the time. Now I know there are more than 150 types of tumour.”
Petrified Caprice returned to London.
Further testing showed her tumour was a meningioma, the most common type of brain tumour in women and older people. Though benign it was growing.
Caprice says: “I wanted to take it out right away but my body was so beaten up from taking part in The Jump that the doctors wanted to wait a month to build up my strength.”
Her first instinct was to protect her children with her now husband, Ty Comfort.
She says: “Apart from Ty I didn’t tell a soul, not even my mum and definitely not the kids. I just wanted to keep them away from it, in a protected bubble.”
Thankfully, the surgery went well.
Caprice says: “I woke up looking like Frankenstein, with tubes coming out of everywhere, but I was so grateful to be alive.”
THE SYMPTOMS
HEADACHES, blurred vision and seizures are all signs of a possible brain tumour.
If you are experiencing any of these, visit your GP, who may refer you for further tests such as an MRI, which would ascertain if you have one and its severity.
Headaches could be severe and persistent and may worsen over a number of days – or give stabbing pains if you do anything that increases the pressure in your head, such as coughing or bending.
Eye and vision-related symptoms may include squinting, worsening, blurred or double vision, restricted field of vision, blind spots or eye movement problems.
It is always worth seeing your GP and an optician to investigate such symptoms.
'I’m much more positive'
She stayed in hospital for a week but says: “I was back at work within two weeks, despite the doctors saying it would be a six-month-to-a-year recovery. I was so determined to get back to some form of normality for my kids.”
Even so, since her operation, Caprice’s “normal” has looked quite a bit different.
She says: “Before, I was a workaholic, working 13-hour days and more. Now I’ve licensed out my business to get rid of my stress levels and have way more time with my children.
“As cheesy as it sounds, when you have a health scare like this it makes you change things around. My whole approach to life has altered — I’m much more positive.”
However she adds: “Tumours are so unpredictable. Every headache still makes me think, ‘Oh my God, has it come back?’ and before every scan I’m a bit scared. But I tell myself to be strong and inside I know I’ll live until I’m 90.”
Like most people diagnosed with a tumour, Caprice has no idea why it happened.
It’s one reason she became patron of Brain Tumour Research, helping to highlight the need for more research.
She says: “We have to find a cure for this evil, evil disease. I want to say to Tom and anyone else in his position, don’t give up.
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“I know one gentleman who was diagnosed with a glioblastoma tumour five years ago who is still going strong and plans to keep it this way.
“Giving up is not an option. These aren’t just empty words, they come from my soul.
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“You have to keep fighting and living.”
- Caprice has donated her fee for this interview to Brain Tumour Research
‘They gave me just two years’
IN 2013 when Richard Preston was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM – the same type of tumour as Tom Parker’s – he was told he could have as little as two years to live.
The 51-year-old, from Waterlooville, Hants, says: “My diagnosis came after I suffered persistent headaches and felt something was not right in the back of my left eye. A CT scan revealed a growth the size of a large apricot in my brain.”
He had a five-hour operation just five days later and was given a prognosis of two to five years. He then endured 11 gruelling months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Although he had to quit his job in data storage, he married Wendy, his partner of 25 years, just weeks after finishing radiotherapy. Richard says: “When I was given such a dire prognosis, I thought, ‘Stuff that’, and decided to live.
“Wendy and I went on several holidays, including a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Hawaii. It’s always been my ambition to see an erupting volcano, and we did. I try not to dwell on the stark statistics. I have an MRI scan every September and I try to look at it as just another day.
“I’m waiting for the results and hope they just ring and say, ‘You’re all fine’. I’m determined to make the most of every day. All I can do now is collect memories.”
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