A mum who was given migraine tablets for “stress headaches” had six GP appointments before having a CT scan, which revealed she had a tumour the size of a tennis ball. Laura Owen, 36, started feeling nauseous, had intense headaches and was sometimes sick before it started getting worse from April. Following a CT scan, doctors found a mass on her brain and she was given an emergency seven-hour surgery that same week to remove it.
Aggressive but treatable cancer
The mass was later revealed to be an IDH-mutant grade four astrocytoma, an aggressive but treatable type of brain cancer. Mum-of-two Laura, a special needs teaching assistant from Solihull, West Midlands, had several rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy over the proceeding months. She will have another round of chemotherapy next month and plans to begin a private treatment alongside it, which she is fundraising for.
Laura is advocating for further awareness of the symptoms of brain tumours after hers was dismissed as migraines for months despite her pleas for help. “The GP thought it was stress and gave me migraine tablets,” Laura said. “But I was ill for about eight weeks, every day with no relief, even with the tablets.”
“I knew something wasn’t right”
“My mum gets migraines so I just thought I was taking after her, but I started wondering why the tablets weren't working and I knew something wasn't right. I went to the GP again and again, until eventually I went to A&E. After my scan, the doctor came up while my husband had gone to go and get some food, and they asked where my husband was. I knew then it was serious. When they told me they found something on my brain, my first instinct was feeling validated, the relief of knowing I wasn't going crazy.”
“A week later I was having my head cut open to remove the mass, and I left with about 50 staples across the front of my head. At first it was too much shock for me to take in, I was fixating on how long I have left, and nobody could say because every cancer is different. What's happened from June through to now has just been a whirlwind, so now if I can help one other person get listened to, it would mean the world to me.”
Six GP visits before A&E
Laura began noticing painful migraine-like headaches as well as nausea to the point of sickness at the start of the year, which had become near-constant by April. Laura, who is supporting Brain Tumour Charity, went to the GP every week with the same symptoms but was reassured the migraine tablets would eventually help. She was finally sent for an MRI scan but it ended up being cancelled due to her being too sick to attend, and the doctors weren't interested in rescheduling it, she said.
It wasn't until mid-June, after six GP appointments with no relief, that Laura went to A&E at Warwick Hospital, and the mass was found. She said: “I'm not a person that goes to the GP unless I have to, and I was there every week, and eventually signed off work sick. I kept feeling like I was being fobbed off. But I went to A&E because I just knew something was wrong.”
The following week she was scheduled for surgery at University Hospital Coventry to surgically remove as much of the tumour as they could, which was around 70 per cent. It was only after the major surgery that doctors could accurately diagnose and grade the type of cancer.
Focusing on the next round
Laura said: “I was so worried at first that I wouldn't be here for my children, but I realised I can't think like that. Now I just focus on one bit at a time, get through the next round of chemo, and then the break. If you think so far ahead you start to fixate. I'm not going to say I've not had bad days, I've had days where I've been in floods of tears. But I've tried to have a positive energy.”
Laura has a break now until starting her next chemotherapy cycle in November. She finds out the results of her first rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in December following a scan. She is now raising awareness of brain tumour symptoms and crowdfunding for some private treatments to go alongside what the NHS have provided. She said: “If I carried on, and didn't make the decision to go to A&E on my own, I might not even be here. I feel like I need to do something to get the message out there.”
Joanna Moss, Director of Services at The Brain Tumour Charity, said: “Faster diagnosis of brain tumours is vital. That's why The Brain Tumour Charity works with healthcare professionals to increase their confidence in recognising signs and symptoms, and in referring for scans if they are at all concerned.” Laura has since launched a fundraiser for private care on GoFundMe.
