Exclusive:The Scottish athlete who won't let brain cancer stop chase for Commonwealth Games gold

The Edinburgh swimmer was diagnosed in May 2024 with a rare, inoperable form of brain cancer. He has borne the burden with courage and used his profile to campaign for better treatment for other sufferers. This has included speaking in parliament to lobby politicians to do more to help those with the condition.

Goodburn, 25, was given access last year to a drug called Vorasidenib which has halted the tumour’s growth.

“My cancer makes up a rare subtype of brain cancer,” he explained. “It grows slightly differently to the other ones because of the mutation. But that mutation drives the growth of my tumour, so a new drug was approved in America in August 2024 that shuts down the production or that metabolic pathway from that mutation, which inhibits that metabolic pathway.

Stopping the tumour’s growth

“It's called Vorasidenib and it suppresses the production of a chemical that drives the tumour growth. So since I've begun that medication, my tumour hasn't grown since July 2025, and long may that continue.”

There have been setbacks. Goodburn suffered a seizure before the Commonwealth Games trials which put him in hospital for two days but he returned to the pool and is on course to make a splash in Tollcross over the next few days.

The Glasgow 2026 swimming programme begins on Friday and continues until Wednesday and one of the most eagerly anticipated events is the men’s 50-metre breaststroke sprint which will see Goodburn take on Adam Peaty, a former Olympic champion over 100m and the poster boy for English swimming.

The pair are friends as well as rivals and Goodburn is hoping the home support in Glasgow can give him an extra edge, as it did for Peaty when he took gold in the 50m in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, winning the one-length race in 26.76 seconds.

“He's a great guy, Adam. He's an absolutely fantastic role model for all swimmers around the country, particularly breaststrokers,” said Goodburn.

“I'm planning on swimming in the men's medley relay, and the 50 metres breaststroke, which is obviously a sprint event, splash and dash, over in hopefully less than 27 seconds.

“I think that's really what the home games is all about, and that's where it can make that extra difference, when you know that that crowd is cheering for you, it squeezes those little extra bits out of you.

The Tollcross factor

“That's what's going to make a difference in the 50, and as someone that swam in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and walked out for the semi-finals beside Adam Peaty, and felt the support at those races for Adam, who's now a friend of mine, I can look forward and almost imagine what that support is going to be like for us as Team Scotland in Tollcross in Glasgow.”

Despite his condition, Goodburn has been able to not only continue his Games preparations but also graduate earlier this month with a first-class degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.

The university has played a huge role in Goodburn’s development in and out of the pool. He is part of its performance swimming programme, working under coaches Mat Trodden and Danny Kirkham, and will be one of 21 University of Edinburgh athletes selected for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games across six sports.

Academically, his master’s thesis involved research into a nanoparticle-based brain cancer drug delivery method and he was also awarded the university’s prestigious Principal’s Medal in 2024.

“I really owe all the accolades in the pool, but also the outcome academically, to the support staff at the university and my coach and everyone being on board for that student-athlete pathway that we have here at Edinburgh,” he said.

Goodburn speaks with a maturity beyond his 25 years and is remarkably positive given the condition he is dealing with. The symptoms first appeared in December 2023 but a trip to A&E didn’t reveal anything.

“I asked for an MRI on the day, but nothing was done other than a blood test, and my bloods obviously came back clear,” he said.

Private diagnosis revealed brain cancer

“And then these weird feelings I was having grew in intensity and frequency up until the [Olympic] trials, but the trials were really kind of a lifelong focus of mine, and I did chase a few more doctors' opinions just at the start of the year, but as the trials approached, I tried to push it to the back of my mind.

“But after the trials, I pushed for a private diagnosis of what was going wrong, because by that time it was really impacting my training, and I'd heard the words hemiplegic migraine being thrown around, but I always knew that it was something much worse than that, much more significant, and a private diagnosis revealed a brain cancer diagnosis in May 2024.”

It was devastating news but Goodburn has been determined to continue swimming and to push for better treatment for himself and others.

Amid the turmoil, he missed out on selection for the 2024 Paris Olympics by a few tenths of a second. He is not thinking about the LA Games in 2028, only Glasgow.

“I'm trying to stay in the moment,” he said. “I'm trying to really look at these Games and see what we can do. Obviously, the future is difficult to foresee, and to be honest, when I was diagnosed, I wasn't sure I'd ever really PB [swim a personal best] again, but I've PB'd since diagnosis, in part thanks to Vorasidenib, and the approval of that drug, and all the people that were behind pushing for that approval, and actually the overturn of the initial rejection for the approval of that drug in NHS England.

“So really looking forward to the future is really difficult.

“In April, I suffered a seizure, which put me in hospital for two days, ten days before the Commonwealth Games trials. When I was in hospital, if you'd asked me, ‘will you make the Commonwealth Games team?’, I couldn't have said a definitive yes. I wanted to, and I knew I was going to put my mind to it.

“In all aspects of my life, I'm going to continue to push as hard as I can, advocate for myself, and also those around me, and make the most of every opportunity. We'll just stay in the moment, and make the most of any opportunity that comes along.”

Some lucky moments

Goodburn, who came up through Edinburgh’s famous Warrender club, has had to contend with so much in a short time but still considers himself fortunate.

“There's been some lucky moments,” he said. “My diagnosis makes up about one to three per cent of all types of brain cancer. Where the most common prognosis is only about 12 to 18 months, I have significantly longer than that, and that's thanks to a mutation within my tumour, which is actually targetable by the medication [Vorasidenib] that was approved just earlier this year.

“I got access to it in July 2025, and that's really what's supported the time since my diagnosis until now, and it's allowed me to get into the pool.

“As a brain cancer advocate, that's what we're advocating for. I'm part of the Brain Cancer Justice Group. We had our petition cross 100,000 signatures earlier this year, and it was debated in Parliament, where one of our main points was trying to get the government to implement a full-time brain cancer national lead to make sure that brain cancer isn't left behind in the same way it has been left for the last 20 to 30 years. Since 2001 it's received only one per cent of the national cancer budget since 2001, despite being the biggest cancer killer of under-40s across the whole of the UK.”

Goodburn is the Scottish record holder in the 50m breaststroke and his target in Glasgow is simple: “A medal,” he said. “The times I've been swimming this year have been enough to win a medal at every other Commonwealth Games in history.

“It's just whether or not that rule holds up for this Commonwealth Games. I do think it's going to be the fastest ever Commonwealth Games in the 50 breaststroke that we've ever seen, based on what's been going on across the Commonwealth these last couple of months.

“So ultimately it's to hold myself accountable to the performances I've produced earlier this year, hopefully better them, do enough by that standard, hopefully re-break the Scottish record, because that's now my own in the event, and just see where that lands me.

“If that lands me on the podium then I'll be a very happy lad, but I'll be equally happy just to come away with a personal best on a stage like that, and look back on the last two and a bit years with immense pride.”