A father-of-two has turned his back on his career and a £200,000 job to spend time with his daughters who at the same time are battling life-threatening illnesses ‘billions for one’. Matt Shaw, 39, was a financial analyst and was offered a job in London with a salary of £200,000 but turned it down so he could spend “as much time as possible” with his two young children.

Five-year-old Sophia has already beaten all odds to beat a brain tumor while her second daughter, three-month-old Delilah, was born with hyperinsulinism – a condition which means she has levels of insulin higher than normal. However, Matt and his wife Tracy, 33, from County Durham, were devastated when they found Sophia’s cancer had returned to her spine, while Delilah needs to be fed every three hours or so. could become fatally weak.

He told the Mirror: “Before that I was flying high in my career and during the pandemic I was offered a job in London which would have paid around £200,000 but I just couldn’t handle it. The only good thing about this whole process is that it taught me how precious time is with my family, and to be brutally honest, I don’t know how much time I have left with them. put a price on the memories you make with your children.”

Hyperinsulinism affects around one in 30,000 babies in the UK and Matt says doctors have told him the odds of his two daughters having both diseases at the same time are “billions to one”.

“I asked the doctor what were the chances of this happening, you know the cancer was coming back but in another part of Sophia’s body and then Delilah was being diagnosed with this disease,” he added.

“He shook his head and said ‘it’s billions to one’, he said ‘I can’t put a number on that’, one of those things that happens is pretty rare on its own. It’s all been absolutely exhausting and devastating but I thought to myself that I’m done being sad, I have to try to stay positive for the girls and believe that we’re going to get through this.”

Sophia underwent successful surgery to remove a golf ball-sized brain tumor when she was just three years old after complaining of headaches while on a camping trip in August 2020 The scans came back clear in September 2021 but just four weeks later doctors claimed to have seen something suspicious on his spine, which was diagnosed as incurable and “only a matter of time”.

However, the family have since launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for a range of treatments, with the couple claiming they have already had success with holistic bio-resonance therapy. The family need £125,000 to support holistic bio-resonance therapy in addition to flights to Spain or Holland for dendritic cell therapy.

Matt said: “We want to try and keep life as normal as possible for Sophia so we don’t say too much about what’s going on and we have to be brave ourselves. The doctors say there’s nothing they can do about it. Sophia this time but we refuse to accept cancer winning this battle.

“The idea of ​​living in this world without any of my little girls is just not an option. We will do everything in our power to see them both grow up and start families of their own.”

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