Trying to find out why?

It is two weeks since my walk and we have now raised over £5oo! I've still got money to collect so the grand total may end up being higher than £600! Brilliant!

I've recently been in contact with my mum's cousin. She had a brain tumour, and so did her mother,( my mum's auntie) and they were both treated at the National Hospital for Neurology.
I wanted to know what type of tumour they both had and it turns out that she had a meningioma, and it was benign (mine was a glioma and an astrocytoma benign). They couldn't remove it all the first time and it started to re-grow and they had to do a second operation in which they managed to remove all of it. She told me that she now has weakness in her left hand side, permenantly. Which means that her tumour was on the right side. She also said that she was diagnosed in her early 30's she is now 49( I was 28. her symptoms were that she had earache so bad that she would be reduced to tears, and it took a few years for her doctors to diagnose what was wrong with her. She is doing well she tells me and long term has few problems, apart from the fact that she is also on anti-depressants.
Her mother was also diagnosed in her 30's with a benign tumour and she believes that she also had a meningioma but that they couldn't remove all of it and that she had to have radiotherapy. It didn't grow back but she had many health problems throughout her life related or unrelated I really don't know, but I do know that she was in a wheelchair at the end of her life and she lived to be 70. She had weakness in one side of her body also. I believe that through talking to my nan who was her sister, that she found out that she had a tumour because her vision was effected and I think that she had a fit.
On talking to my mum's cousin she believes that her tumour was genetically inherited. Which I am tending to think, because it is too much of a coincidence. Even though the doctors who research into the causes of low -grade brain tumours say that there is no proven genetic link of inheritance. The researchers I believe are mainly focusing on malignant tumours, which of course they should do. Anyway I had a low grade glioma and my relatives had meningioma's so maybe it is not at all related. I really don't think I'm ever going to find out why I had a brain tumour, I just can't help wondering.

Walk completed!

Myself and Andrew completed our walk on Saturday. It was a lovely day, sunny and warm, the first weekend of sunshine for a long time! It took us 3 and a half hours in all to do approximately 10 miles. I started at 10.45 and finished and 2.30. We only stopped once for a 1/2 of cider in The Bull at Ditchling. The only problem was that I got very muddy!
I'd like to thank anyone who sponsored me, I am truly grateful. We raised approx. £400!

Hiking for Hurstwood

I am going to be doing a walk next Saturday 13th September to raise funds for Hurstwood Park. They need to buy a fantastic bit of equipment called a Stealth Surgical Navigation Unit. Basically it guides the surgeon around the brain and facilitates the removal of tumours etc.. with an accuracy of 1mm, minimising trauma to eloquent regions of the brain.
I will be walking from Ditchling Beacon to Hurstwood Park Neurological Centre.
Any kind donations for my walk would be very much appreciated.
All cheques to be made payable to; Hurstwood Park League of Friends

Check out there website at www.hurstwoodparkleagueoffriends.org.uk

Short but sweet

I saw Mr C today, first appointment of the day. It all went well and he was very pleased with my progress. The scans showed that my brain hasn't changed since my last scan in May, meaning I still have a hole in my brain where the tumour was. He says it is filled with water and may never fill in again. I asked about the possibility of coming off Tegretol Retard and he was happy for me to do that. He recommended to come down to 400 mg twice a day for a month, from 500 mg. He is going to write to my local epilepsy nurse to monitor me. I will have another scan in 4 months time. Really that was it, I would say he saw me for about 10 minutes. Short but sweet. He is my hero!!