I will be walking AT LEAST 2 miles a day beginning on the 1st of March and ending on the 31st March with various friends and family to help raise as much money as possible for the brain tumour charity as well as trying to spread awareness about brain tumour and the impacts they can have on a person’s (and family’s) life.

My story:

My name is Lauren and I am 19 years old. I was 12 years old when I started to get severe headaches almost everyday and feeling sick, so we went to my local GP where they told me it was most likely dehydration.

Over the following weeks, the headaches and nausea feeling had become persistent and occurring all the time and I’d started to develop new symptoms such as feeling tired all the time, physically weak and not wanting to move and dizzy. My co-ordination and balance were also then starting to get worse all of these signs were completely different to my normal lifestyle as I was very sporty and athletic. I went to A&E this time but was told I had a UTI and was sent home with antibiotics.

There were also massive changes in my behaviour and decision making which led to me getting in trouble at school and being given detentions. This certainly was not like me as I had always been smart and determined to learn but had started to forget things and couldn’t concentrate in lessons.

In the early hours of Friday the 28th of June, that morning my dad heard my bedroom door rattling and all of a sudden screaming coming from my room. He came in to find me having a seizure where I was screaming while throwing myself up and down in bed (I was completely unaware of this the whole time). My parents then called an ambulance and I was then taken to hospital where I then had another 3 tonic clonic seizures. Originally, the doctors thought I had meningitis but was then taken for an MRI as they then realised something wasn’t right. My parents were then told later that afternoon that they had found a tumour on the left frontal side of my brain slightly smaller than the size of a Golf ball.

I was then taken to Addenbrookes hospital, where I had surgery to remove as much as possible of it on the 6th of July 2017 but they couldn’t take all of it due to it being too close to healthy brain tissue, so it ended up being partially resected. This was then sent for biopsies to reveal it was a benign grade 1 DNET tumour (Dysembryoplastic Neuroepithelial Tumour) where I was told this would almost certainly not regrow.

Since then, my surveillance scans were every 6 months then changed to every year as nothing had changed until September 2023 when I had been feeling rough previous to this but I had a really bad headache at college one day and when I got home I went straight to sleep. The next day my dad took my to A&E just to make sure everything was ok after the original experience I had. I was then ordered a CT scan where they then had told us all that they had found something new on the scan and wanted to do and MRI to be sure.

The MRI also showed that there was a new tumour growth around the front left side around 1.2mm with what looked like swelling around it. I was then admitted into hospital again for a few days to have steroids to help with the swelling and then was discharged but ended up being readmitted a few days later due to severe headaches. They then rescanned my head to see that it had grown to 1.9mm in the space of just over a week. I then spent a month in hospital where I had spent my 19th birthday trying to control my symptoms and was then discharged in November.

Since then, I have had my care transferred to UCLH in London which is the best in the country and specialise in neurosurgery and neurology. At the moment, my most recent scan was positive as it shows that it has slightly shrunk in shape so I have to have another scan in 3 months time and then my doctors will discuss the results and plan of action again in April 2024.

My brain tumour has been a massive part of my life as it has had a massive impact on my childhood and development as a person from the age of 12. This is because I have had to face experiences I would never wish on anyone even after my surgery and it still has left me with problems such as a problem with processing information properly and has affected my memory ability too and much more. I never got to experience being a teenager properly which is something no person especially a young child should ever have to do, they should be able to live their lives the way they would like to.

However this sadly isn’t always the case. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killers within children and adults under 40 and over 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year.

The Brain Tumour Charity is the world's leading brain tumour charity and the largest dedicated funder of research into brain tumours globally. Committed to saving and improving lives, they’re moving further and faster to help every single person affected by a brain tumour.

They’re set on finding new treatments, offering the highest level of support and driving urgent change. And are doing this right now. Because they understand that when you, or someone you love, is diagnosed with a brain tumour a cure really can't wait.

This diagnosis and illness is a massive part of what has made me a resilient and strong person and the person I am today but not only to me also my family too. Without their love and support I couldn’t have done any of this so far.

The brain tumour charity too has helped me and millions of others with the resources and services needed that can help not only a person understand and help with any support around various stages in a diagnosis or treatment but also help friends and family to understand and support their loved one or friend when they need them most.

If you can donate it would be helping thousands of people around the UK and support the work this charity does.

Thank you for reading my story,

Lauren