A Royal Marine serving on the front line did not realise he had an incurable cancer until he was injured in an ISIS attack and sent back for testing where an MRI revealed a tumour
A former Royal Marine did not realise he had cancer until he gained a huge injury while fighting and underwent a brain scan – which revealed the worst.
Lance Corporal Rian Ilett, 36, luckily survived an attack after he was hit by an anti-tank missile from ISIS while serving in the Middle East. He managed to get away with just minor injuries. However, to be on the safe side, he was flown home for routine tests to ensure his health. But the shocking MRI results revealed a tumour on his brain.
Following the incident, doctors acted and gave him a craniotomy – which is a surgical procedure that involves opening the skull to access the brain or tissue underneath. This debulked the tumour and also allowed for professionals to perform a biopsy, which confirmed he had a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
After this shock news, Rian was given less than 18 months to live. After radiotherapy and chemotherapy, he is still battling on. Now he hopes to look forward and raise some money for the Brain Tumour Research charity.
He was forced to give up work following his diagnosis, but wants to complete the Royal Marines Endurance Commando Test. Rian, originally from Portsmouth, Hampshire, said: “When they told me they’d found something, at first, I thought it must have been connected to the incident the previous month.
“I had a combination of military and NHS consultants. The military doctors tended to be more forthright and one of them sat me down and said it was a tumour and that it looked like cancer. The biopsy results following surgery revealed I had a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and I was given 12 to 15 months to live.
“Despite this terrible blow, I didn’t let it get me down. What choice did I have but to just get on with it?”
Rian was hit in January 2019 and flown home for tests at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham . He had a few injuries including concussion and ringing in his ears but the tests came back clear.
Rian was keen to get back to work but agreed to go for an MRI for a further check in February 2019. There doctors found the mass on his front right temporal lobe and Rian was taken for surgery in March 2019.
He added: “In March 2025, it will be six years since my diagnosis. It feels like a double-edged sword because I love the fact I’m still alive, but I can’t pass a medical for anything. I saw too many people in the cancer treatment centre who seemed to have given up on life.
“My main message is that a positive mindset goes a long way, even when the odds are stacked against you.” Now Rian has written a memoir ‘Every Day Is A Battle: Fighting demons, Jihadis and terminal cancer’.
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