![Gary Mackay, with his wife Lisa and children, Sienna and Sebastian at Christmas 2022.](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/SEI_182734168-a351.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=600%2C432)
When Gary Mackay, 38, started experiencing ‘drilling’ headaches and bouts of exhaustion, he put it down to his lifestyle as a busy working father.
But after a shock collapse last year, a scan revealed the dad’s issues were actually signs of a grade 2 astrocytoma brain tumour.
Gary, a complaints strategy analyst for Barclays, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said: ‘Everything started making sense. My mysterious collapse was actually a grand-mal seizure.
‘The pain in my head, sometimes so severe it felt as if…