A MUM from Emersons Green who is living with an inoperable brain tumour has raised more than £8,000 for a charity that has given her vital support.
Sian Norman was diagnosed after her face started swelling in January last year.
Partner Mark Hooper urged her to see a doctor, who thought she might have had a stroke.
Sian was taken to hospital by ambulance. There she was told she hadn’t had a stroke, but a CT scan of her brain had caused concern.
Sian, who had been undergoing monitoring for an autoimmune disease, had previously been scanned ten years earlier and staff could see that an area of her brain had changed since then. A further MRI scan confirmed that she had a brain tumour.
Sian said: “That hadn’t even come into my head, and it was a massive shock.
“I’d had it for ten years and not known.”
Sian, who works as a healthcare assistant for Sirona’s district nursing team, had previously worked at the brain injury unit at Frenchay Hospital and thought back to the many patients she had cared for there.
At first the specialist neuro-oncologist thought they could operate, and Sian underwent a memory test, so medics could measure any memory loss from the surgery.
But a detailed scan then revealed that because of the shape and position of the tumour, an operation would be too dangerous to attempt.
Sian said: “The tumour is in my left hippocampus, which is shaped like a sea horse’s tail. It’s growing all the way around.
“Surgery wasn’t an option because I could lose 55% of my memory, and for the same reason they couldn’t do a biopsy, so they don’t know what type of tumour it is and they can’t do any treatment “It’s a case of ‘watch and wait’.
“I’m under six-monthly surveillance, at the last scan there was no change and my next scan is in April.
“I’ve no symptoms.”
One challenge for Sian has been what to tell her children Lilly and Theo, who are both at Mangotsfield Primary School.
She said: “We didn’t say anything for a little while but when we had to cancel our holiday we ended up telling them I had a lump in my head – they named it Brian and we tried to make it light-hearted.
“When I found I couldn’t have surgery I told them it was because Brian was the shape of a slug and we had to keep watching him and see what he’s doing.”
As well as the “overwhelming” support of her family and close friends, Sian says professional help and advice from charity Brain Tumour Support has made a “massive” difference.
She said: “When I was diagnosed I was signposted to Brain Tumour Support and was given a support professional. She’s my person I can talk to if I need to talk.
“When I first found out about it I couldn’t even talk about it – my emotions were all over the place. “They understand the emotions that go with it. It’s helped massively to talk to someone that gets it.”
To repay the Thornbury-based charity for its support, Sian organised a fundraising night at Centurys Club in Kingswood in March that was attended by around 200 people and raised a total of £8,238.
The event included a raffle with 30 hampers and up to 60 vouchers donated by local businesses, signed shirts from Bristol City, Rovers and Bath Rugby as well as Bristol-born England Rugby international Ellis Genge.
An auction with BBC Radio Bristol presenter and actor Joe Sims as auctioneer raised more than £1,000 during the evening.
A Brain Tumour Support Spokesperson said: “We send our heartfelt thanks to Sian and everyone who donated or played a part in making this wonderful evening such a huge success.
“Your help in funding our much-needed support services makes a vital difference to brain tumour patients and their families.”
For more information about Brain Tumour Support, visit www.braintumoursupport.co.uk or call 01454 422701.