Meet Joel, Charlie's wonderful patient who shares his story below. We're so excited to see Joel doing well and taking part in the #brainfreeze4braincancer. You can watch Joel's FREEZE here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/340411447001940/
My name is Joel Costello, a Bondi local who grew up on the South Coast south of Wollongong, and 8 years ago I was out running with a client (I am a Personal Trainer) when I got a severe and sudden onset of dizziness and couldn't stand up. I... had to immediately end our session. This was a sign that something was not right.
Cue the months of pouring thousands of dollars into trying to "work out" what it was by visiting doctors, naturopaths, chiros and psychologists.
It wasn't until I visited a dizziness doctor in North Sydney, who tested my inner ears and eyes and everything was 'fine', yet he did order an MRI "just in case". So off I went to get the MRI.
2 days later my phone was ringing like crazy. They had found "something". When I asked if it was serious, I was told "it shouldn't be there" So then started all the tests - PET scans, spinal taps, more MRIs, yet no one knew what it was. All I was told by one neurologist was that it looked "nasty"
I kept a positive outlook and I wouldn't give in to the fact that it was anything serious. Becoming frustrated with not knowing what it was I reached out to Charlie for a second opinion.
Immediately I felt like I was being looked after. The "lesion", as we knew it at the time, was in a very precarious position in my brain, so biopsy at the time wasn't an option. The plan was to do annual follow up MRIs to monitor it.
In February 2020 it grew, and it was confirmed that it was a tumour. I reconnected with Charlie and we decided to operate. I trusted him as i know how skilful this man is.
On March 11th I was lucky enough to have Charlie operate on me, to remove the tumour that was in an extremely tricky position in my cerebellum.
He has saved my life and has given me a second chance. I now consider everything moving forward as Joel 2.0!!!!!

