My plum sized benign meningioma was removed from my brain 7th March 2023. After a 7 hour operation at the National Neurological Hospital Queen Square, London, my right leg, ankle and foot was totally paralysed and my right hand and wrist partially paralysed. Warned before the operation that because the left side tumour was so large on my brain, paralysis might happen because the neurological pathways were likely to be severely affected by such an operation. It was strange; I could feel my right side but try as I might, I could not even bend my knee or tap my toe; the brain has lost all communication with that part of the body.

As advised by a friend, who’d suffered something similar, and urged by “my” excellent NHS surgeon, I should get these neurological pathways going asap, so I started physio immediately; that night at 2am whilst the rest of the ward slept around me, I did all I could to get my right side to wiggle, push out, crunch, raise, bend and relax. I dropped food down my front as I practised eating and relearnt how to write my name and the alphabet on my daughter’s lined exercise book to get my wrist and fingers going. People of all ages were in my ward suffering and recovering from the effects of a variety of neurological traumas; people of all ages and backgrounds, who had found themselves caught in a sudden nightmare of blindness, memory loss, physical debilitation and robbed of speech. A primary school teacher off to catch her half-term flight who'd had a stroke, a 25 year old on a zoom call at home with a brain bleed, a 85 year old feeding her cat awoke on the floor having had a stroke; their attacks were non discriminatory and the National hospital was putting us back together again.

Since that night, I’ve tried FES (electronic pulses that bypass the brain signals), a regime of 15 or so daily exercises, expert physio, adult group ice skating lessons for balance and coordination, and various courses for memory recall and applied knowledge and lastly, gardening for tranquility and physical exercise. I try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day with my “foot up” brace.

After 4 weeks of support from friends & family and physical persistence, I was able to walk slowly with a “foot up” brace, without tripping over.

After 8 weeks, I could rotate my ankle and bend my big toe in one direction, balance on the right leg.

10 weeks on, I am still suffering from loss of neurological power and “proprioperception” (balance and precision placement) so I trip over obstacles in my line of sight. More exercises including foot tapping “around the clock” and standing one leg whilst throwing a ball at the wall and catching it.

The next 4 weeks is about being able to dance again, without standing on anyone else’s feet and along the way, raising money and a positive awareness for this wonderful appeal. Admittedly, some have found my experience difficult to accept but, a positive attitude and a weekly progression overcomes this. For me this was an “incidental finding”, aged 49years. Sometimes known as “the 50 year old woman’s cancer” as the symptoms of headaches, fatigue, forgetfulness and irritability can be assumed as the onset of the menopause, I am lucky that it was detected before my plum grew larger and I was the victim of a stroke or suffered a seizure, that is reported to affect 60% of meningioma sufferers.

Along the way, I have met the most wonderful surgeons, doctors, administrators, physios, occupational therapists, nurses and ancillary staff who have all helped me, overcome this mountain. I have met many young and old in-patients who have all suffered numerous neurological problems (motor neurone, stroke, bleeds, dementia, Meningioma etc) that the Hospital have treated so they can be reunited with their families. I have had tremendous support from my own family and friends who have been critical in this recovery but who also had the support of the medical team to answer their questions and worries; such a disease affects a wide variety of people as well as the patient.

Sadly, it is inevitable that many of us or our families, will suffer illness related to the brain. So please help me to raise funds for the National Brain Appeal research so we can all be better prepared for the future.