Two weeks after our honeymoon, my super-fit rugby player husband was given five years to live… people think we’re selfish, but his brain tumour won’t stop us from starting a family

Returning from their idyllic honeymoon, newlyweds Vicky and Tom Chapman couldn’t wait to start trying for a baby—blissfully unaware that in just two weeks time they would be told, ‘it’s now… or potentially never’.  

On 16 March 2025, just days after the couple returned from their romantic trip to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mr Chapman, 31, suffered a seizure, leaving his former rugby star wife, 35, with no choice but to frantically perform CPR while waiting for help to arrive.

After a series of tests, the couple were told that Mr Chapman has an incurable brain tumour—but even though they know that he might not be around to see their child grow up, they are pushing on with their plans to have a baby, a decision Mrs Chapman describes as a ‘no-brainer’. 

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mrs Chapman said: ‘If everything works out, he gets to be a father and experience that. 

‘And if it doesn’t work out then I have a little something of him that’s left behind.

‘Anyone who has children doesn’t know what’s around the corner.

‘Tom lost his dad at a relatively young age, and he turned out to be a fantastic person!’

But, Mrs Chapman is happy to admit that she understands why people might criticise their decision.

She said: ‘People who have the view of, “but you might not make it,” [I say] no one’s promised tomorrow.

‘I think I maybe would have also had that same view had I not been in the situation myself.

‘I probably would have been the person that said “that’s unfair on the child”.’

The couple’s life changed forever as they enjoyed an average Sunday dozing in front of the TV. 

Mr Chapman said: ‘The dog woke Vicky up because she could tell something was happening to me. I was having a seizure. I don’t even really know what a seizure was.

‘Then Vicki called an ambulance, I’d stopped breathing, so she was trying to give me CPR.

‘Luckily, we don’t live too far from a hospital, so the ambulance was here within five minutes or so.’

Doctors at University Hospital in Lewisham initially suspected that he had suffered a stroke, but after a CT scan, they told him that he had a grade 2 glioma, a type of cancerous brain tumour. 

Symptoms of gliomas can include double vision and one-sided weakness or numbness along with headaches, seizures, nausea and vomiting, cognitive or personality changes.

Mr Chapman was able to access private healthcare through his work, and on 15 April, after undergoing an MRI scan London’s Cleveland Clinic, he discovered that his brain tumour was the size of a toilet roll tube and in fact was a a grade 4 astrocytoma, a type of tumour that does not usually spread outside the brain and spinal cord. 

The Cleveland Clinic team were able to successfully remove the tumour, but had to deliver the devastating news that Mr Chapman’s condition is incurable and he has a life-expectancy of just five years.

To give him as many years as possible, he is now undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea. 

Despite facing an uncertain future, Mr and Mrs Chapman, from South London, have decided to make the most of the time they have left together, making memories, fundraising and starting IVF to begin their family in early January. 

Mr Chapman told the Daily Mail: ‘It was high on our list to do naturally when we got back from our honeymoon. 

‘But then we were kind of pushed down this IVF route, because you can’t [conceive] if you’re having chemo and radiotherapy.

‘So yeah, it became a case of kind of rushing to a hospital to make a sperm deposit, and then Vicki going through all the procedures from her side.

‘We’ve got a couple of embryos sitting in the hospital now.

‘What was meant to be the start of married life with Vicky, who I’d already been with for over a decade, soon turned into something out of a nightmare.’

What makes Mr Chapman’s story even harder to fathom is that he was at the peak of physical fitness. An ex-professional rugby player, he has more than 150 National League appearances and is now a coach at Old Colfeians RFC.

His wife is also in peak physical condition. She made her Red Roses debut in 2011 and has over 80 caps for England, including as part of the team that lifted the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

She said: ‘I’d retired from playing rugby, we then got married, went on our honeymoon, and we were thinking about starting a family, and all that kind of stuff. 

‘They were our next steps, and we’ve been thrown a bit of a curveball.’ 

Mrs Chapman is confident that her husband will be here for their future children longer than doctors expect him to be.

She said: ‘When you’re put into a bracket of this is your prognosis, which is average, we’re like, ‘he’s not average’, he’s never been average so why would he fit the mould?’

It is unknown what caused Mr Chapman to develop an astrocytoma but the couple haven’t let his condition slow them down. 

They were announced as Brain Tumour Research’s newest ambassadors on Friday, joining other stars like former model Caprice Bourret, 54.

Focusing their time and energy on contributing to research charities has helped the sporting couple to maintain their positive attitude, and have raised over £55,000 since August. 

Mr Chapman said: ‘Any kind of research almost gives a bit more hope to try and find something we can do to cure this for people.

‘I don’t know if it’s because we’re hypersensitive to it now, but it does seem to be every morning you switch on the news, and there’s some kind of development with some kind of cancer.

‘There’s hopefully some hockey stick growth to finding better treatments and outcomes for people.’

Since having his tumour removed Mr Chapman has undergone six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is now in chemotherapy for another year. He is also lucky to be part of a clinical trial which he hopes will see success.

Alongside traditional medical intervention Mr Chapman has also made several changes to his lifestyle, even though evidence that it can increase life expectancy for people with the disease is limited.  

Mrs Chapman said: ‘We’re trying to make lots of lifestyle changes and put his body in the best place to be able to withstand the treatment and make sure the cancer doesn’t come back.’

She added: ‘When I look back and think about everything he was probably burning the candle at both ends a little bit too much.’

And now, the couple have a completely different outlook – something which Mr Chapman says has brought back the man she first fell in love with 12 years ago.

Mr Chapman said: ‘It’s given me a new outlook on life to just embrace the fun things.

‘Looking back I was very stressed, I would get kind of upset about fairly minor things.’

His wife agreed: ‘I now think he’s like “everyday is a blessing”, and wants to do something nice together or with friends and family – just making the most of every day, every weekend, having things planned.’

Although Mr Chapman has been given a year off of work for his chemotherapy treatment, he is keeping active in the gym and is currently in training for the London Marathon. 

He has also started a charity alongside his wife that provides rugby for kids who don’t have access to the sport through their school. 

Mr Chapman said: It’s one of those things that you never think it’s going to happen to you. It wasn’t even on our radar and because there’s no known symptoms there wasn’t [any warning].

‘We just want more people to know about it and understand it because we had no idea.’

He added: ‘Only around 1 per cent of cancer research funding in the UK goes to brain cancer which we just think is pretty appalling considering it’s the biggest cancer killer of under 40s.’

For more information or to donate to the Brain Tumour Research Christmas Appeal, visit braintumourresearch.org/christmas