The widow of a rock'n'roll star who died from a brain tumor will soon release one of his records to raise funds for research into the 'devastating' disease.
Dale Barclay, frontman of the Amazing Snakeheads, was just 32 years old when he died from a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumour in September 2018.
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Before then he and his wife Laura St Jude, 30, who is also a singer, were living in Berlin in Germany and performing in the band And Yet It Moves together.
Laura, who now lives in Elderslie, west of Glasgow, said: “We were outside the venue of a show we were playing in Frankfurt when Dale suddenly collapsed.
“He’d had a tonic-clonic seizure and I thought he was dying right in front of me.”
The couple quickly flew back to Glasgow in the hopes of receiving an emergency brain scan at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Laura said: "They wouldn’t give Dale a scan, even though he displayed the big three brain tumour symptoms of seizures, vomiting and headaches.
"We had to keep on fighting for one for four weeks. Eventually, a doctor said, ‘come back when he’s had another seizure’.
“Well, Dale had another seizure, and the scan revealed a lesion on his brain.”
Just four days late, Dale underwent surgery for his condition.
Laura said: “We were told the tumour was the worst you can get, a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), and Dale had just 12 to 14 months left to live.
“But he only got nine months.”
What followed were a hopeful five months of clear scans which meant that Laura and Dale were able to gig and record music together.
However, Dale then suffered from three seizures in a row and was told that his tumour had grown back aggressively.
Despite receiving private surgery and further medical care, Dale died on September 25, 2018 with his wife by his side.
Before his death, Dale wrote a song called Wild At Heart which Laura has now reworked in his memory and will realease soon with all proceeds going to the Brain Tumour Research Charity.
Laura said: “Even after everything, his death still came as a huge shock.
“There is such a lack of research into this devastating disease and more needs to be done to spot the early symptoms which Dale’s doctors missed.
“I want to do something for a charity that means so much to me.
"I’ve been through my own thing, but I’m now ready to help others.”
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Matthew Price, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research said: “We’re really grateful to Laura and her friends in the Glasgow music scene for turning Dale’s beautiful song into reality.
"It’s only with the support of people like her that we’re able to progress our research into brain tumours and improve the outcome for patients like Dale who are forced to fight this awful disease.”
Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK.
It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure.
Wild at heart will be released on 12 April 2022.
For more information visit Laura St Jude’s artist page on Facebook here.
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