A man who was struck by a car while riding an e-scooter home from work has said he wants to ‘buy the driver a pint’ after hospital scans following the incident revealed he had a brain tumour.
Connor McCann, 35, from Omagh, Northern Ireland, had finished a late shift in his job as an optometrist on December 8, 2022, when he uncharacteristically decided not to walk home.
Instead, he hopped on what he now describes as the ‘death trap’ scooter and while navigating the ‘cold and dark’ roads was struck by a grey Range Rover which sent him crashing to the ground.
In shock, Connor crawled to the pavement in a daze and recalls that as the moment he had his first of what are now fortnightly seizures.
‘I looked back towards the car and realised that my muscles weren’t behaving properly,’ he told MailOnline.
‘They were moving in the opposite direction. My muscles, my neck and head were pointing up and to the right and I bit my tongue.
‘That’s the last thing I remember before waking up in the back of an ambulance.’
Adjusting his eyes as the lights beamed down on him and the sounds of sirens rung out, Connor could feel pain in his toes after his foot had been wedged under the deck of the scooter during the collision.
Connor was going to have his foot wrapped in a bandage for a number of weeks – that much he knew.
However it was the discovery of a ‘pear-sized’, low-grade glioma quietly growing in his head that he did not expect.
Connor McCann was struck by a car while riding an e-scooter home from work and said he wants to ‘buy the driver a pint’ after hospital scans following the incident revealed he had an undetected brain tumour
After the collision, Connor expected to have his foot wrapped in a bandage for a number of weeks
He did not expect the discovery of a ‘pear-sized’ low-grade glioma quietly growing in his head
‘They had to do a scan to make sure I had no internal bleeding or a concussion, which I definitely had,’ he continued.
‘So I was expecting them to just come back to me with that, but instead they’ve done a “good news, bad news” sort of thing.
‘They said the good news was that there was no internal bleeding or haemorrhaging, but the bad news was that they had found a primary brain tumour.
‘If it wasn’t for being hit I wouldn’t have known, so in a way the driver hitting me actually did me a bit of a favour.’
To this day, Connor still doesn’t know the identity of the driver who struck him but hopes they can one day meet up over a beer.
He said the man even man sure his Garmin watch, which fell off during the collison, was returned to him without a scratch.
Despite his positive outlook now, Connor was forced to undergo some gruelling rounds of surgery.
In February 2023 he had the first – a craniotomy.
He recalls dipping in and out of consciousness during, and saw surgeons remove 70 per cent of the tumour.
However, they were forced to stop due to its proximity to the ‘eloquent speech area’ of his brain. If they hadn’t, Connor would have been left permanently unable to communicate.
Despite his positive outlook now, Connor was forced to undergo some gruelling rounds of surgery
In February 2023 Connor underwent a craniotomy which he dipped in and out of consciousness during, and saw surgeons remove 70 per cent of the tumour
Surgeons were forced to stop operating to the tumour’s proximity to the ‘eloquent speech area’ of his brain
Though they were able to avoid this, medics were still forced to diagnose him with aphasia, a condition which restricts Connor’s verbal and gesturing abilities and affected him for almost three months after the surgery where he was unable to speak.
Despite this setback, Connor made a remarkable recovery and was soon back on his feet, returning to his optometry job six months later.
‘My job involves a lot of patient communication and I had been working in the same practice for over a decade, so a lot of my patients know me and um were waiting for me to come back,’ he said.
‘So I returned slowly but surely and built it up. I got over a lot of mixed emotions, determination and a little bit of imposter syndrome, too.
‘I was worried about a lot of things: could I communicate effectively? Was my brain quick enough?
‘But ultimately I was successful until the the most recent scan that I had earlier this year.’
Medics diagnosed Connor with aphasia, a condition which restricts his verbal and gesturing abilities and affected him for almost three months after the surgery where he was unable to speak
Despite this setback, he made a remarkable recovery and was soon back on his feet, returning to his optometry job six months later
While undergoing an MRI check-up in February, doctors noticed new areas of Connor’s brain had been lighting up when under scan – they had discovered a new growth.
This prompted the decision for Connor to undertake six weeks of radiotherapy, which he is currently four weeks through, before a course of chemotherapy which means he has to step back from work again.
Ethan Loughrey, 35, has been friends with the ‘kind and sensitive’ Connor for more than two decades and told MailOnline when he realised he could play a ‘little part’ in helping him.
‘I had been chatting regularly to him after the growth and he left me a voice note one day just talking through how he was feeling,’ Ethan said.
‘One of the things he happened to mention that was worrying him was the finance side of things, but he said it very much as a passing comment in a six or seven minute voice note.
While undergoing an MRI check-up in February, doctors noticed new areas of Connor’s brain had been lighting up when under scan – they had discovered a new growth
This prompted the decision for Connor to undertake six weeks of radiotherapy, which he is currently four weeks through, before a course of chemotherapy which means he has to step back from work again
‘And I remember just thinking, okay, there’s something we might be able to do.’
Alongside two of his friends, Damien and Daniel, Ethan launched a GoFundMe to help cover Connor’s medical expenses and lost income which has raised thousands from friends, family and strangers moved by his story.
‘Me and the guys are the smallest part of this, so we’re just really happy that it’s going well,’ Ethan added.
‘Connor is unbelievably and incredibly positive about it all. We just want to help him get a few pounds to help him not have to worry as much about his treatment.’
