A father of three, whose family threw a final Christmas party for him last year when he was diagnosed with fatal brain cancer, passed away last Friday.
“With a broken heart, I must inform you all of the Passing of Matthew Sandbrook,” wrote a family member on Facebook. “The world lost a very precious kind loving funny hard-working family man taken from us too soon he will be sadly missed and always in our hearts.”
Sandbrook, 37, who worked in a factory, said that he constantly had headaches for nearly two years before doctors found a tennis ball-sized tumor. In October 2021, doctors gave him just months to live.
“I work night shifts and just thought the headaches were stress so I just popped paracetamol and carried on,” said Sandbrook.
“I want to tell people that if they are suffering from headaches to get themselves checked out.”
Sandbrook was eventually diagnosed with aggressive glioblastoma and doctors told him that he was unlikely to make it to the holidays.
In an effort to make sure Sandbrook got a little holiday cheer, his family put a call out online to friends and caring strangers to give Sandbrook one last festive bash.
Members of the online community went above and beyond.
Nearly 200 people turned up at Sandbrook’s residence to raise his spirits. The footage has since been viewed thousands of times on social media.
The crowd began singing “Stand by Me” as Sandbrook and his family joined them outside of their home.
“I’m on cloud nine with what’s happened today,” said Sandbrook at the time. “You spend years and years thinking you’re on your own and all this happens in such a short space of time. I’m totally blown away.”
The entire pre-Christmas celebration was arranged by his cousin, Nikki Lee.
“He loves Christmas and when we found out he would probably not make it this year, we thought we’d just have to bring Christmas forward,” said Lee. “It was an amazing, emotional, heartwarming night which gives you such faith in humanity.”
“There were so many people there, some who didn’t even know Matty but had read about his story on Facebook and wanted to show their support.”
Sandbrook managed to celebrate his favorite holiday and made it nearly a full year from the surprise party before losing his fight to cancer.