British swimmer Archie Goodburn has been diagnosed with multiple incurable brain tumours.
Are we right to be asking questions?
Just over a week ago, British swimmer Archie Goodburn announced he has been diagnosed with multiple incurable brain tumours following seizure-like episodes in the pool.
The 23-year-old, who won bronze in the men’s 50m breaststroke at the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships in Hungary and has represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, noticed something was wrong when he began suffering from facial numbness (paresthesia) and focal seizures leading up to the Olympic trials, narrowly missing out on qualification.
When Archie finally had diagnostic scans, doctors found three large, inoperable oligodendroglioma brain tumours. He has since decided to go ahead with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, though the timing hasn’t been specified.
Although oligodendrogliomas are relatively slow-growing, they are still malignant and incurable. It’s likely that these tumours had been growing for some time - maybe even over many years - before any symptoms appeared.
Archie is understably in shock, but remains in good spirits. On his Instagram, he wrote:
“Six weeks ago, my life experienced a profound change as I was diagnosed with three brain tumours.
In December 2023, my training began to be interrupted by strange episodes. These episodes, initially thought to be hemiplegic migraines, would occur during hard training. They would leave me with a loss of strength and a numb sensation on my left side, a deep feeling of fear, nausea and extreme deja vu. I now know that these were in fact seizures.
The seizures grew in intensity and frequency in the lead up to the 2024 Olympic trials in April, something I’d aimed for and trained for almost my entire life. I was determined on achieving my dreams, so I continued to train on through the seizures.
I narrowly missed the Olympic team by just a few tenths of a second, placing 3rd in an event with only 2 sports.
With the trials behind me, I dug deeper into what was really causing these attacks. An MRI in May finally revealed what I’d begun to fear the most.
I am young, I am fit, I have the most phenomenal support network of friends, the best family I could ever hope for and a fantastic girlfriend by my side.
I am determined to take this head-on, to remain positive and to keep being Archie.”
I’ve tried to reach out to Archie to share my experiences and some of the things I’ve learned on my journey, but it’s hard when someone is in the public eye. To him, I’m just a random guy on the internet. Maybe he’ll come across me naturally, maybe he won’t.
I can draw some parallels with my own story.
My first noticeable seizure - though I didn’t realise it at the time - was actually a focal aware seizure in a pool. It happened in 2010, during lifeguard training, after a timed swim. I felt a strange numbness down one side of my face and felt groggy for a while, but I didn’t think much of it. I was 24 - a year younger than Archie - and I felt young, fit, and healthy.
Reflecting on Archie’s story
In times like this, many questions arise, at least for me.
When even high level athletes are faced with a brain tumour diagnosis, in this case multiple brain tumours, surely we need to do more to investigate the potential causes.
That’s always where my brain goes, I can’t help it. I refuse to accept that these things just happen and that it’s all simply ‘bad luck’.
Possible causes or contributory factors
The obvious thing to look at is Archie’s second home, the swimming pool.
Not all pools are chlorinated, but many are (including Olympic pools), and even then, most swimmers don’t go on to develop brain tumours.
You could easily argue that occasional exposure isn’t inherently toxic - especially if you’re not swallowing the water - but there are serious concerns about chronic exposure, particularly concerning “disinfection by-products" (DBPs) - and these risks can be amplified by frequency, duration, and individual sensitivity.
As someone who has investigated this myself (I did some work as a lifeguard before my brain tumour diagnosis and used to top up chemicals in a pool plant room), I know that genetically some people clear these agents better than others. Also, if you are metabolically compromised in some way, it is plausible that this exposure could over time act as a contributory factor to malignancy.
Mechanistically, we know that chlorine in pools disinfects by reacting with organic material (like sweat, urine, skin cells, etc.). This reaction forms these disinfection by-products (DBPs).
What does the research suggest?
The most studied compounds include chloramines, which are responsible for the strong “chlorine” smell, and Trihalomethanes (THMs), a group of chemicals, some of which have been associated with cancer risk (excluding brain) in occupational and high-exposure scenarios.
Even if you keep your head above the water, exposure of these volatile compounds is still possible. You can inhale them of course, but there’s also skin absorption.
We know that the dose makes the poison. While better ventilation and showering can help to reduce risk, there are studies where lifeguards and competitive swimmers (with high exposure) have shown increased markers of DNA damage, oxidative stress, and respiratory issues.
It’s important at this point to note that these effects are linked to DBP exposure, not chlorine itself.
While it’s unlikely that these exposures could have caused Archie’s brain tumours to form in and of themselves, it could be the case that he has a genetic predisposition to be more sensitive to prolonged exposure, making it at least a contributory factor (theoretically).
Can we test for this?
Although there’s no standard "chlorine sensitivity gene," Archie could have a genetic test to look at detoxification pathways and byproduct metabolism genes to assess any risk that could be presented by being in the swimming pool, especially as he is now on anti seizure drugs and still swimming.
I did this myself, and there are a number of tools you can take advantage of to conduct your own analyses. I like SelfDecode and Promethease, but others can be just as good, if not better. I just go with what’s most familiar to me.
There are also experts who can go through this with you, like Dr Tyler Pazner, who goes into incredible detail, but these services can be prohibitively expensive for many people. If you can afford it though, it’s definitely worth the money. So many valuable insights can be gained from this about your metabolism and what foods, drugs, exposures and supplements you respond to.
In my case, from my own investigations, I found that I am a slow metaboliser of dichloroacetate (DCA).
Dichloroacetate is a repurposed metabolic drug that targets the Warburg effect in cancer by inhibiting an enzyme called Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK).
Typically, studies suggest that human brain cancer patients (at least for GBM) require at least a 6.25 mg/kg oral, twice-a-day dose of DCA (Dichloroacetate) to inhibit PDK and kill cancer cells.
Because I metabolise it slowly, DCA may build up in my system more than usual, potentially increasing the risk of side effects - especially if I consume an abundance of protein, which can interact with the same detox pathways (involving GSTz1).
Interestingly, DCA is also a byproduct of chlorinated water. My results may indicate that exposure to chlorinated water could pose a greater risk for me. I wouldn’t have known any of this information if I hadn’t gone down this rabbit hole. Everyone is different, so it’s important to appreciate what works for you as an individual. - and what doesn’t.
If Archie becomes curious and looks into this, he may find benefit looking at:
Glutathione metabolism - Specifically GSTZ1, GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1, which help to detoxify chlorinated compounds.
NAT (N-acetyltransferase) genes: Involved in detoxification of various chemicals.
SULT and UGT enzymes: Phase II detoxification enzymes that process halogenated byproducts.
CYP2E1: Involved in DCA and chloroform metabolism.
Antioxidant defense genes: like SOD2, CAT, GPX1, as chlorine exposure can increase oxidative stress.
These are just my opinions, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts. Have you had any kind of genetic testing done and did you find it useful? What do you think of Archie’s diagnosis? Although these things can be deeply personal, are we right to be asking more questions, particularly of someone in the public eye?
Even more relevant - Are there any other questions you would ask?
Leave a comment and let me know.
Was a swimmer as a child for a few yrs.
I guess it’s a stretch to assume any causality, as it has been decades before. But still the more interesting to read this.