'I just want to see my little boy grow up' - Assistant to Black Country MP facing ongoing cancer battle as plight aired in Parliament

Mr Wood spoke emotionally in the Commons on Friday as he sought to introduce the private members bill on rare cancers which will push for more research to help doctors.

Senior parliamentary assistant Dan Horrocks has worked for him since he was elected in  2015 and has just completed six weeks of radiotherapy for brain and spine cancer. 

He has now beaten cancer four times in just over ten years but fears it might come back yet again.

He credits a free eye test for saving his life when at university in 2011 he was having persistent headaches but medics failed to diagnose what it was until an optician noticed a swelling of an optic nerve and referred him to hospital.

A benign tumour was removed but three years later, the father of one who was born in Wordsley and grew up in Kingswinford  was diagnosed with brain cancer, undergoing surgery at Queen Elizabeth II in Birmingham before in 2018 another tumour occurred in a different area.

He was treated at the Royal Marsden in London and got married to childhood sweetheart Sonia in 2021, becoming a father to Elijah a year later.  

Cancer free, he started to enjoy his new life but late last year was told he had brain and spine cancer.

He has just undergone six weeks of treatment in London  but he has been told radiotherapy can do no more for him and the chance of success with chemotherapy is around 14 per-cent. THe treatment was successful but the cancer is of a form which is likely to come back. The NHS who have told him there may be nothing more they can do for him.

A gofundme page has been set up to help Dan with travel costs to go to the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas for evaluation and potential further treatment - it stands at £55, 541 and a date for him to go has been arranged for next month.

Mr Wood launched an impassioned plea in the commons on Friday as he sought to introduce the private members bill  which will push for more funding and research into rare cancers to help give doctors more information on them.

He said: "Dan is an employee who has become like family. He is a father, a husband, a four-time cancer survivor. 

"For 14 years, he has fought this monster bravely, each time feeling the ground slip more from under him as his options narrow, leaving him with ever-reducing hope.  

"I’ve seen him face unimaginable pain.  I’ve watched him endure brain surgeries, radiotherapy, the fear in his eyes each time the disease comes back and he hears his doctors tell him that they don’t know how much more his body can take,

"It took a free eye test to get a proper diagnosis but what followed has been nothing short of a nightmare. 

"Brain tumours. Surgeries. Radiotherapy.  The heart-wrenching hope that every treatment might be the last, only for the disease to rear its ugly head again. 

"And now, cancer has spread to his spine.  His doctors have no answers. His options are dwindling.

"Cancer does not care about politics.  It does not care what background you come from, your age, your gender or what party you belong to.

"It strikes indiscriminately. It takes what it wants, and it leaves devastation in its wake. 

"That is why we must respond with urgency, with compassion, and with action. I support this Bill and I urge all members here today, please, stand with us."

Talking to the Express & Star Dan said: "I now have an invitation to go over to America next month where they will look into my medical history and decide what the best course of action is to prevent the cancer from coming back. 

"I just want to be around to see my little boy grown up and spend quality time with him and my wife which has been restricted over recent years due to my illness and I really want to thank everyone who has contributed to the fundraiser and send me best wishes."

To donate to the fund, go to gofundme.com/f/dans-final-chance-to-fight-brain-cancer