Intensive radiotherapy proved ineffective so a course of chemotherapy followed in the summer and Rob was unable to fly out. It will be Tom's first major competition without having dad poolside.
A BBC film being shown tonight is an intimate portrait of the toughest year in Tom's life. A year in which a child diving prodigy turns 16, sits his GCSEs (cramming revision between training), has to deal with injury and failure in the pool and comes to terms with his father's illness.
Tom, one of Sportsmail's Magnificent Seven, whose progress we are tracking up to London 2012, has had film-maker Jane Treays follow him every dive of the way; from training after school to the European Championships.
The focus of the film is the relationship between Tom and his father. Rob adores his son, famously crashing the press conference after Tom's victory at the 2009 World Championships for a hug. He has been unable to work since the operation on his tumour and looks after his three sons as a full-time job. He is driver, bag carrier and entertainer-in-chief, even if Tom is not always entertained. Tom adores his father too, but he's a teenager; grumpy in the morning and easily irritated in the afternoon.
His coach Andy Banks reveals when he first saw Tom crying on the diving platform he felt the boy had 'no prayer' of being any good. He invented the 'Peter Pan Principle' - think happy thoughts so you can fly. It was used to coax a sulking, stubborn seven-year-old back in the pool, but Tom needs it now more than ever.
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