Brain tumour I didn’t know I had burst and nearly killed me: NI teenager

The correct diagnosis came in February for 17-year-old Amber Hanna, but only after she suffered a serious haemorrhage and her tumour burst.

The teenager is sharing her story to raise awareness of the disease she never knew she had. She is also supporting a petition to increase the national investment into brain tumour research.

Amber said: “My mum took me to the GP over and over again to try to get me referred for a scan but we were always told it was just migraines, caused by stress. I actually felt as if my migraines were causing me to be stressed and not the other way around.

“I would get a throbbing pain in my head, blurred vision and ringing in my ears. It was particularly bad in the morning. My (school) attendance was so poor and I was put on a reduced timetable.”

Amber, who lives with her mum Daniella, brother Sebastian, 26, and sister Charlotte, 23, became so ill one morning in February her mum called the GP, who sent an ambulance.

She added: “I felt worse than ever and I couldn’t stop vomiting. The paramedics came and took me to Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH). They scanned me and the first thing they discovered was a haemorrhage in my brain. Later they found a tumour, which had burst, causing my sudden and extreme symptoms.”

Amber’s tumour was a rare choroid plexus tumour. The most common symptom of this tumour-type is headaches caused by hydrocephalus, the build-up of fluid in the brain.

Amber was admitted to the RVH and operated on the same day. They removed part of her skull to fit a drain to reduce the build-up of fluid. She then had more surgery to inject glue into the tumour, to make it easier to go in and remove it. Her third surgery, to remove the tumour, was two days later on February 24.

She added: “My amazing surgeon, Mr Mano Shanmuganathan, works at the RVH but lives in England. I’m told he cancelled his flight home that day, in order to stay and operate on me, as it was so urgent. I am so very grateful to him for that.”

Following her operation, Amber has developed epilepsy. The other after-effects of surgery included a completely numb left arm and weakness in the left side of her body but she continues to recover well.

She said: “My mental health is so much better than it was before my diagnosis and my physical health continues to improve. The positive side of having emergency surgery was that I didn’t have time to get anxious about the operation – it just happened.”

Amber is urging people to sign a petition to increase the national investment into brain tumour research.

Visit www.braintumourresearch.org/campaigning/brain-tumour-research-petition