A beautician has said that a routine Boots eye test saved her life after it led her to a brain tumour diagnosis. Katie Dunn, 30, said that the meningioma could have been “both life-changing and even life-limiting” if left undetected.
Katie’s tumour was identified after her optician noticed abnormalities during a test and referred her for an MRI scan in February 2021. “I feel like the eye test saved my life and eyesight”, she said. “If it was left any longer, I could have lost my vision completely due to it pressing on my optic nerve.”
Visiting Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Katie’s results displayed a large tumour on her brain. Since then, she has had two surgeries and started radiotherapy in December 2022. The radiotherapy targeted the mass, causing some hair loss, and her nose and throat are still recovering from the second surgery, which removed part of the tumour via her nose.
Brain tumours can impact anyone at any age, killing more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer. Historically, only 1% of national expenditure on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours. Each year, more than 11,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour, around half of which are cancerous.
In 2022, Katie raised nearly £3,000 for Brain Tumour Research. In February 2023, she and her family will take on the 10,000 Steps A Day Challenge for the same cause. The charity campaigns to increase national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million per year and fund a network of seven sustainable Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence across the UK.
Mel Tiley, Community Development Manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We’re grateful to Katie for sharing her story with us as well as fundraising an incredible amount and we wish her well with her ongoing scans.”
