October 2022 the mysterious face pain started on my left cheek. It was only a few times in the month and I assumed I was stressed and tired with work. (Life of a teacher) It continued for a few months and by January i thought it was best to get it checked out.

My GP had no clue and so sent me to a neurologist. I thought this was totally over the top! He did a full body check and then sent me for an MRI. Again I thought this was ridiculous.

17 hours after the MRI i was told I have a brain tumor. I was 36. Shocked. Confused. Angry.

The many months after this were a blur. I was hearing and seeing things that I’d never thought of before. Words like brain stem, meningioma, trigeminal nerve, radiation, brain surgery. I ended up seeing many neurosurgeons because some of them told me my brain tumor was too dangerous to operate on and some told me surgery was the only way.

To go through all this and be working full time was alot. I was then to make the decision on surgery or radiation. Surgery was the best option even though I didn’t want it.

The date and an amazing neurosurgeon was picked. I was soo scared and nervous for this to happen but I think I just blanked it out because non of this still felt real.

My parents flew over from the uk to be with me for surgery and my good friend Jen also came to the hospital. She had been with me all the way through every appointment.

10 hours of surgery happened! 95% of my tumor removed. 50 staples in my head! I woke up clueless. I only remember things that happened over the next 2 months if people tell me about them.

Getting over brain surgery was hard! Mentally and physically!

Let’s skip past the long recovery process and onto July for my 3 month MRI scan. Tumor had grown!! Heartbroken was not the word! After everything I’d just gone through and was still going through!

Let’s skip past another 3 months….still being seen be the hospital as I had double vision (and had gone back to teaching for the new school year) and my jaw muscle hadn’t heeled from being cut during surgery so I was being seen by Botox people to try and fix it.

Octobers MRI at 6 months post op….tumor had grown again! So in 6 months since surgery my tumor grew 11mm more! Devastated. Even my surgeon couldn’t understand what had happened to my tumor and told me this wasn’t normal.

At this point I was done. I was so fed up. This had been my new normal and life since February and I just couldn’t process what had happened to me. It was all very unfair. So I decided to quit my job at Christmas and have time to think and process!

But then came Jan…my 9 months scan…tumor didn’t grow for the first time ever!! But the neurosurgeon and myself thought it was best to do radiation now so it didn’t grow anymore.

14 days later radiation happened. Gamma knife! I won’t go into detail on that as it was horrific!

That was a very long story cut short.

So here I am now…6 weeks post radiation and 10 months post op! My next scan is in 2 months to see what radiation did!

It’s never ending and will be my new normal to have MRI scans all my life.

And this is where I decided to do the 50k trek through the Sahara desert to raise money and awareness for the brain tumor research!

Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.

Brain Tumour Research is determined to change this.

They are the only national charity in the UK focused on finding a cure for all types of brain tumours through campaigning to increase the national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million per year, while fundraising to create a network of seven sustainable Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence across the UK.

So now you’ve heard my story id really appreciate all the help and support to raise money. This is now a charity that I am part of and very close to my heart! It needs more awareness and funding!! This could help me one day!!!