Tina’s story

Good afternoon, Michelle. Could you please share with us your experience of cancer or cancer screening from either your perspective or that of someone you know? Hi, my name's Michelle. Um, I've lost several friends to cancer over the years. And most, the most recent being 4 years ago, um, my best friend was complaining of tremendous headaches, um, and she just kept putting it down to working on screen, um, working from home on the laptop a lot, um, and being.

Inundated with emails and workload. So she just put down to normal behaviour and thinking back even before then, several years earlier, um, who also had a brain tumour, she was diagnosed as going through the Cause, because things were happening different to her, so I'd basically like to Tell everyone that if you've got a symptom that's not normal to you, so if you you've got headaches but they're not your normal, then please don't be fobbed off. Please go to the doctors, go seek medical.

If it's at a nurse, at the chemist, doctors, and if you're not happy with the treatment, then maybe ask for a second opinion because. There is a chance, you know your own body, and if you know something's not right, there's a chance that. Could be cancer.

Not saying that you're going to necessarily die, but the sooner. To know what's going on with your body, the sooner the treatment can be. Both my friends um passed away with brain tumours, but.

Both completely different type of tumours. I didn't know that there's about 100 different types of brain tumour. So even if you are diagnosed with having a brain tumour, it doesn't necessarily.

That that's the end of your life. So I just urge anybody to, if something feels not right, whether it's a headache, blurred vision, or menopausal symptoms that you think, hang on, this isn't the menopause, just go to your GP first and seek help. And did your friend or or both your friends, whichever you want to tell us about, did they have any other associated cancers or did, was that just a standalone symptom? Um, my best friend Tina, she had, she developed a lump, found a lump in her breast, so she had a lumpectomy.

Um, and was given the all clear from that, from her breast cancer, and it was. Nearly a year later that she had a seizure while at work. Which they thought at first she'd had a stroke, which was the brain tumour, so We're unsure how long the brain tumour had been there, was the brain tumour secondary to a breast cancer or like I think, the breast cancer was secondary.

Yeah, to the brain tumour, I believe the tumour was there longer than we thought, but that's just my opinion. But one was secondary to the other we think. Um, my other friend, no, she, she didn't um have any other cancer symptoms, she just started to display, but she, everything changed about her, so they've just put it down to the menopause or.

Menopause because she was only in her 30s. So in that case, was that um diagnosis masked somewhat, do you think? Um, yeah, the, yeah, her diagnosis was masked and she was, um, given, um, antidepressants. She was given.

Hormone treatment. Menopause, basically told to eat a healthier lifestyle which she already did, to take exercise, to basically everything that you're encouraged to do because of the menopause, she was doing to the best of her ability, but, Eventually she went. To the hospital, I think she collapsed.

The treatment of her is a little bit different because when originally with a brain tumour they, Do the operation and see how bad it is. Well, unfortunately she died through complications after the treatment, the surgery, whereas fast forward 67 years, my other friend, they've stopped doing the. Um, Invasive until they knew what it was, it was more scans, so treatment's being advanced all the time.

But yeah, just shout if you don't feel right. Thank you for that, Michelle..