‘I didn’t know what was going on’ – mum’s brain tumour shock
BETH Harris had just completed a Parkrun event when strange things started happening to her. After arriving home, the avid runner was getting ready when she began to forget how to do little things like washing her hair or dressing herself correctly, but didn’t think anything of it – she thought she was just exhausted from her 5k Llyn Llech Owain run that morning.
A few hours later, she started having seizures. She said: “I couldn’t function and I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t think anything was serious but I knew I wasn’t right. I just wasn’t with it, I couldn’t focus.”
Beth’s husband Cellan, 34, was due to leave for work, but called for Beth’s parents to come over due to her alarming behaviour.
He returned home a short while later as Beth’s behaviour deteriorated – she could only answer yes, no, or I don’t know to any questions asked of her.
She said: “They asked if I was pregnant to which I said yes, even though I knew I wasn’t.
“I then put myself on the floor and had three seizures, during which time my terrified parents called my brother and he came round to take care of Elis, who was only two at the time.”
Beth doesn’t remember a large chunk of time that day but was rushed to hospital where she received a CT scan and MRI which confirmed she had a brain tumour, at the age of just 29, with a twoyear-old son at home.
It was October 2019. Now aged 31, she had displayed no symptoms before her shock diagnosis.
On November 11, surgeons operated on Beth to remove as much of the tumour as they could. A biopsy revealed a grade 2 or 3 glioma.
Gliomas are initially slow-growing but have a tendency to progress to a higher grade over time – usually a number of years. Beth began treatment through a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Her chemotherapy finished in January this year and she continues to be monitored with regular scans which have shown no signs of growth.
Beth said: “At the time of my treatment, my mother-in-law was on end-oflife care for cancer of the oesophagus so we were dealing with a lot and I just wanted to be as practical as possible. My mother-in-law died a week after I had surgery. I didn’t have time to process my own problems.
“All I wanted to know was if my tumour would come back, how much the treatment had worked in shrinking what was left and if I could go back to work or if it was a ‘go and enjoy the time you have left’ type of thing.”
Due to the positioning of Beth’s tumour they were unable to remove all of it, so she underwent seven weeks of radiotherapy and a full year of chemotherapy. The tumour may re-grow in the future, Beth said, but for now her quarterly MRI scans have shown no sign of this. She said: “The best way to be is to carry on and be positive, and as the MRIs are coming back clear, it’s looking good but we are just enjoying life. There’s no other option for me than to be positive.”
Beth is now fundraising for Brain Tumour Research and hopes to raise awareness to support others who may be going through a similar experience, You can donate to Beth’s just giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/beth-sarginson1
Mel Tiley, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We’re sorry to hear about Beth’s diagnosis and we wish her well. Her story reminds us that brain tumours are indiscriminate: they can affect anyone, at any time. I’d encourage anyone who feels inspired by Beth’s determination to get involved and join us this Wear A Christmas Hat Day to fundraise and help find a cure for this awful disease.”
Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK. It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure.
The charity is the driving force behind the call for a national annual spend of £35m in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia.