Mum’s forgetfulness and afternoon naps were signs of a brain tumour

A mum who put her forgetfulness and afternoon naps down to her age was actually diagnosed with a brain tumour following a routine eye appointment.

When Alison Haspell, 51, from Northwich, noticed she was becoming forgetful and needing to take regular naps, she assumed it was down to getting older.

But after realising her last eye test was four years ago, she booked in for a general appointment.

During the check-up, the optician spotted a swelling behind her eye and referred her to an eye hospital for further tests.

There, a CT scan revealed a 5cm benign brain tumour, known as meningioma.

She had a 14-hour operation to remove the non-cancerous mass and is now recovering.

"It's scary because if I hadn’t gone to that routine eye test, I could be dead now, or on my way to being dead," the customer service worker explains.

While Alison says she never really thought anything was wrong, her husband Scott, 54, a grounds maintenance manager, had noticed a change in her behaviour.

She said he spotted his wife was experiencing dementia-like symptoms, like forgetfulness, and was quieter than usual.

"I'd forget birthdays and things like that," she explains.

"I just put it down to my age."

Alison was also struggling with anxiety attacks every day - which she attributed to stress from the pandemic, but she now believes these symptoms were also due to the tumour in her brain.

In October last year, Alison booked in for her eye test with the optician immediately telling her he was going to refer her to the specialist hospital.

"He told me to try not to worry because he didn't believe it was cancer, but that's when alarm bells started to ring that it could be something serious," Alison explains.

Five days later Alison received a call and was asked to attend Leighton Hospital, Crewe where she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and given steroids to shrink it before surgery.

Despite the size of the tumour, Alison did not have any of the usual symptoms - such as headaches, instead, she pieced together that her tiredness could have been a sign.

"Looking back on it I was having afternoon sleeps, which I’d never done before," she explains. "But I just thought I was tired, or depressed because I had depression.”

In November Alison underwent a 14 hour operation at the Royal Stoke University Hospital to remove the surgery.

For six weeks afterwards she struggled with double vision and will now need to have MRI and CT scans every six months.

During her brain tumour journey, Alison was supported by her husband and four grown up children, who she describes as "amazing".

"I’m one of these parents where I hold this family together," she adds. "I’m like the sticking plaster and I said if I fall apart then the whole family will fall apart.

"So, I just had to stay positive and keep going. It wasn’t about me, it was about them," she adds.

What is meningioma?

A meningioma is a type of brain tumour that begins in the meninges, the membranes that cover the brain.

According to the Brain Tumour Charity these tumours differ in grade and type, but are usually low grade. They are also relatively common with around 27% of all brain tumours diagnosed being meningiomas.

They’re also more common in women than men and are rare in children.

Meningioma symptoms usually begin gradually, as they gently push and compress brain tissue, rather than invading it.

As with many brain tumours symptoms vary depending on he exact part of the brain affected but can include headaches, vision changes and hearing loss.

Meningioma symptoms might include:

• Headaches

• Change in vision, like partial loss of vision or double vision

• Cognitive difficulties like memory loss

• Hearing loss or ringing in the ears

• Loss of smell

• Seizures (epilepsy)

• Feeling weak in your limbs

Treatment often depends on the grade and behaviour of the tumour, but can range from active monitoring to surgery and radiotherapy.

Additional reporting SWNS.

Brain tumours read more:

• Eye test ‘saves woman’s life’ after optician spots brain tumour (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)

• Woman’s ‘ear infection’ turned out to be a sign of a brain tumour (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)

• Husband and wife both diagnosed with brain tumours 14 months apart (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)