Gabby Allen's grief for her dad is 'getting harder'
Gabby Allen lost her dad Mike to stage four brain cancer in Janaury 2013
Gabby Allen says the pain of losing her dad gets harder every year.
Mike died aged 54 in January 2013 - 10 months after he was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive brain tumour - and Gabby, 34, wished her biggest cheerleader was still here.
She told the Daily Star newspaper: "As I'm getting older, it's actually getting harder. I wish I had him in my life.
"When I was a kid, he used to take me to dancing lessons five nights a week and was always full of life, telling me how great I am.
"I'm glad that we had such a close relationship."
Gabby was a 20-year-old student when doctors broke the news that a CT scan showed that Mike had a mass on the front right temporal lobe.
It came a couple of months after he had a fit at the wheel of his transit van on the M62 motorway in 2012, and was initially suspected of having developed epilepsy, as well as having begun slurring his words.
Within four weeks, doctors operated on the mass to take a little bit out to see what it was, and biopsy results showed terminal stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme.
After Mike and his wife Paula sat Gabby and son Ethan down "in the living room" and told them of the heartbreaking diagnosis, Mike insisted he felt "positive and confident that he wasn't going to let it beat him".
Gabby added: "It allowed me to go back to drama school with confidence that my dad was going to fight."
Mike had quite a big mass removed in the summer of 2012, and he also underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
However, the tumour grew back, and between Boxing Day and New Year's, Mike had another mass removed, but medics could not get rid of it all.
A week after the New Year, Mike left hospital, and Gabby was told by her mum's friend that he had gone into a hospice.
The Love Island alum recalled: "It was only in the last couple of months that he realised he wasn't going to win and made peace with it.
"He was always thinking about how we were going to handle the situation rather than himself."
One morning in January 2013, Ethan told Gabby that Mike had died in Paula's arms - just 10 months after his diagnosis.
In total, 100,000 people in the UK currently live with a brain tumour - and 5,000 people die each year.
But unlike other cancers, survival rates and treatments have not changed.
Gabby said: "From what I gather, I don't think much has changed, which is a real shame because of how big a killer it is."
The Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins star is "so in tune with my body" so she has the "knowledge to recognise when something's right or not".
And Gabby has urged people to do the same.
The Celebs Go Dating 2026 cast member added: "My dad had tinnitus for a while, which may have been a sign that something was going on. In the last year or so, he also became an avid napper.
"If you recognise a change, such as not having the best memory or balance, it's worth looking into. I wish more people would talk about it."
