- A dad of two was diagnosed with a brain tumor in February 2020 after experiencing “strange symptoms”
- Sam Suriakumar, 40, said he’d been “smelling a strange smell and feeling really unwell” in the days leading up to his diagnosis with a glioma, describing the smell as “like ammonia or bleach”
- Suriakumar assumed his wife Sindhu, with whom he shares daughters Avaana, 10, and Arya, 8, had been cleaning the bathroom
A British father of two is speaking out about receiving a devastating diagnosis after noticing he had some strange symptoms — which included randomly smelling bleach.
Sam Suriakumar, now 40, was diagnosed with a glioma in February 2020 after having a seizure on the London Underground on his way home from work, according to the Brain Tumor Research website.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a “glioma is a tumor that forms in the brain or spinal cord.”
“There are several types, including astrocytomas, ependymomas and oligodendrogliomas. Gliomas can affect children or adults. Some grow very quickly. Most people with gliomas need a combination of treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy,” the clinic adds.
Suriakumar shared his story with Brain Tumor Research, writing, “In the days leading up to my diagnosis in February 2020, I had been experiencing some strange symptoms. I’d been smelling a strange smell and feeling really unwell.”
“It was a smell like ammonia or bleach, and it felt like a cleaning agent was filling up my mouth. I now know this as a symptom or a warning sign called an ‘aura,'” he continued.
Sam Suriakumar and family.
According to the Daily Mail, the first time Suriakumar smelled the bleach, he assumed his wife, Sindhu, had been cleaning the bathroom.
“I felt like I needed to lean against the wall to stand, I felt very strange but didn’t think much of it,” he said of experiencing the symptoms, per the outlet.
Suriakumar added, according to the Brain Tumor Research site, “The next day, when I was lifting a heavy weight at the gym, I experienced the same smell. I felt like I was going to collapse, and I had to put the weight down,” sharing, “I didn’t know it was a trigger warning that something was going on in my brain.”
He remembered going back to his office in central London, but “didn’t feel right” and “couldn’t face sitting in front of a computer screen,” so headed home.
While on the subway, Suriakumar said he closed his eyes, but opened them “just two minutes later,” despite it feeling “like so much time had passed.”
He said he’d “had a full tonic-clonic seizure on the tube,” adding, “My seizure was so severe that I fell off my seat, and the contractions were so violent that I dislocated my shoulder.”
Suriakumar — who shares daughters Avaana, 10, and Arya, 8, with his wife Sindhu — wrote, “A member of the public had pulled the emergency lever on the tube, and I was taken off at Balham [London Underground station] where the station staff called an ambulance. Later, I was told I’d had another seizure in the ambulance.”
He explained that the doctors at St. George’s Hospital, where he was taken, “didn’t know” why he was having the seizures, as he’d “had no previous symptoms.”
Suriakumar recalled, “I had some scans and a lumbar puncture to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for analysis. At first, nothing really showed on the scan, but a further scan revealed a mass on my brain.”
Sam Suriakumar.
“When they told me, I was devastated. I didn’t even understand those words. To me they just meant death with a zero per cent chance of fighting this,” he continued, adding that “suddenly” his “life changed.”
“I couldn’t work, I couldn’t drive, and my future was far from certain. It felt like life had stopped and I was in a dark tunnel with no light. I couldn’t speak, hear or understand what was going on,” he shared.
Suriakumar said that the COVID lockdown “soon followed” and he enjoyed some quality time with his wife, whom he married in 2011, and two girls.
After thanking people for their support, Suriakumar continued, “My brain [tumor] is a glioma and it was growing like a cobweb. This means it is difficult to remove with surgery without causing damage to the areas of my brain which control speech, memory, emotions and mobility.”
He said that he was told if he “did have an operation, it would only be possible to remove 40% of the mass.”
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According to the Daily Mail, Suriakumar was later told that his tumor had grown while he was at a wedding in Brazil in July 2023, after his condition had remained stable for two years. Not long after flying back to the U.K., he underwent surgery to have some of the tumor removed, the outlet noted.
“In August 2023, I had a biopsy followed by a course of radiotherapy at the Royal Marsden in Sutton. I then underwent a year-long course of chemotherapy which finished in September 2024,” Suriakumar shared with Brain Tumor Research, stating that he was “really sick during chemotherapy” and lost around 44 lbs.
Now, Suriakumar has been working on his health, completing a fitness competition in Belgium in April of this year, as well as recently celebrating his 40th birthday on July 26.
“I now have check-up scans every six months. My most recent one was in May, and it was stable which is what I’m looking for,” he told Brain Tumor Research. “When I was first diagnosed, my oncologist gave me a poor prognosis … I didn’t think I’d get to see my 40th, that’s the crude reality of living with a brain [tumor].”
“When I was first diagnosed, I didn’t even think I’d see the end of the week. Forty was always a big benchmark number because of the poor survival statistics for people with brain [tumors], so getting to celebrate it has been a massive dream for me,” Suriakumar insisted.