A widow has revealed how her husband’s brain tumors turned him from a husband ‘warm” and “loving father” in a violent abuser.
Tumors can radically change people’s behavior
Michele Kenber, 58, says Dave Kenber, 54, changed dramatically, but didn’t have many clues as to why until the shocking diagnosis.
Her husband’s scans revealed three cancerous nodules growing on the left frontal lobe – a part of the brain that plays a key role in social skills, self-control and behaviour.
This decision came after years of suffering for Kenber, a corporate financier who saw her son’s stepfather turn into a paranoid and jealous man whom she eventually had to evict.
Her husband, a finance executive from Sandton, South Africa, put a tracking device on her car and spyware on her computer, and snapped at their children – once even pointing a pellet gun at the woman’s face, she revealed this for the DailyMail.
When the tumors were removed, he was instantly restored “the loving husband he used to be”, and Kenber took care of him in his last months of life.
In 2013, the man failed to get a mark on his arm checked, which turned out to be skin cancer.
“Like all men, he hated going to the doctor. She was always in the sun, but she never wore sunscreen“, said Kenber.
Finally, the man made an appointment and was sent for a biopsy, but it was canceled at the last minute and he did not make another appointment.
The tumor disappeared, but a year later his wife stated that “he began to notice a change in his personality.”
In the space of about 12 months in 2014, he went from being the life and soul of the party to “a mean and jealous person“said his wife.
“We were happy, we both had successful careers, our children were thriving, our life was social and fun, but then I began to notice changes in his personality. There was never any jealousy in our marriage and all of a sudden he started getting really paranoid about things and saying things like “why are you wearing that”. He also started to get very fussy with the kids. The situation has deteriorated to the point where it has become a nightmare to live with”Michele Kenber also said.
He even went so far as to install spyware on all of his wife’s devices and put a tracking device on her car.
“I became suspicious when he would say things like ‘what did you do for lunch today?’Kenber stated.
In late 2015, Michele Kenber kicked her husband out of the house and obtained a restraining order.
But in October 2016, the man suddenly collapsed while at work and was rushed to hospital, during which he had two seizures, brought on by his cancer.
A CT scan showed he had three advanced brain tumors. The Brain Tumor Charity explains that one in three people could experience personality changes caused by a brain tumor or its treatment.
Other common symptoms of brain tumors include headache, convulsions, nausea, weakness in one part of the body and problems seeing or speaking, says the NHS.
Brain tumors are the number one cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40, and more than 5,300 people die each year from a brain tumor.
Michele Kenber welcomed him back into her home, where he stayed for the last four months before he died on January 26, 2017.
“I had an amazing four months where everything that happened in the previous years was almost erasedshe said.
Michele Kenber has since retired from corporate sales and now volunteers for a domestic violence charity.
A brain tumor is a growth of cells in the brain that multiply in an abnormal, uncontrollable way. Brain tumors are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40, and more than 5,300 people die each year from a brain tumor.
According to the NHS and the Brain Tumor Charity, the symptoms of brain tumors are headaches, seizures, persistent nausea, sleepiness, changes in thinking or personality such as memory loss, paralysis and problems seeing or speaking.
