A dad-of-five has been told he may have just a year to live after he was diagnosed with a rare mistakenly believed to be .

James Pilkington, 42, was diagnosed with a grade four in January - the most serious grade - after being told by that memory loss he was experiencing may have been caused by diabetes. The dad's family started noticing trouble with his memory in September 2024, following a bout with .

He had started forgetting what day it was, but was initially reluctant to seek advice, with his partner, Amy Pilkington, saying he didn't visit his GP until the following month. After extensive testing that ruled out a potential diabetes-related cause, he has been told he may have between 12 and 18 months left to live.

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Speaking to SWNS, Amy, 37, said the dad of five, whose youngest son is just eight years old, is "putting on a brave face" following his devastating diagnosis, with doctors still unsure as to how long he may have left to live. She said: "He's putting on a brave face but I know that it's killing him, literally and emotionally. He talks about certain things and he'll be OK, and the next minute he'll be in tears.

"One minute he'll say he's not bothered and the next minute I know it's bothering him. I think it's bothering him more because of what he's leaving behind, it's not so much himself, it's the kids." The family must now wait for doctors to say how long they believe the dad may live, as it is currently unclear as to whether treatment has halted the tumour's growth.

Amy explained: "They just can't tell us because they genuinely don't know. For a grade four tumour normally, life expectancy is 12 to 18 months, but we don't know whether the treatment he's had has stopped it growing yet. We're waiting for something. I can't plan anything because I just don't know how he's got."

She added: "My oldest girl wants to get married and have children. She always thought her dad was going to be there for all that. Now it is looking that is not going to be the case. My concern is my little boy, who is eight. They are best friends." His GP had originally thought James' memory loss might be caused by diabetes.

Civil servant Amy said: "The GP sent him for an MRI to have some blood tests done, because they thought he might be diabetic and that was what was causing the memory loss. He got a phone call one week saying that he was diabetic, and they needed to treat him for that.

"The day after that he was pulled into the GP's office to be told that he had a tumour, and that was the day after he found out he was diabetic." Doctors are unable to operate on the tumour as it's too deeply set. More than £7,000 has already been raised on GoFundMe to help the family prepare for funeral costs and to help them travel and make memories while James is alive.

James has already gone through radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and is set to start another round of chemo in just four weeks. Amy said: "He seems more present than he was, which is good. Before we started treatment he was spiralling quite quickly. It was never made to get him better, it's just made to prolong his life a little bit.

"It's just difficult, we just have no clue. We're walking blind in this, I'm trying to navigate it the best I can, but I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with this."