A mum whose brain tumour has tragically returned after almost 20 years says she 'will do anything' to find a cure for the disease so she can live to look after her four kids.
Emma Fox, 35, has now been waiting three years to have the growth removed which sadly returned in 2020, Wales Online reports.
READ MORE - Edinburgh mum threatened with legal action after electricity bill shot up to £2,000
The mum was first diagnosed with Oligodendroglioma, a primary central nervous system tumour, as a teen after she had a seizure on the bus home from school.
As a young girl, she recalls feeling 'invincible' and did not worry too much about the treatable tumour but now as a mother to four young kids she is far more concerned about her health but is 'determined' she will beat it.
As a child, she had suffered with migraines and occasional seizures from a young age but they were put down to febrile convulsions. It was only after she was given an MRI scan that she received the heartbreaking news that she had a large mass on her brain and was rushed into emergency service.
Emma, from Gwynedd, said: "Because I had been suffering from the age of about three or four with migraines and illnesses I always knew that there was something wrong.
I think I was diagnosed on September 23 or 24 and I was in the Walton Centre (a neurology hospital in Liverpool) within four days. So it was pretty quick.
"I think I was diagnosed on September 23 or 24 and I was in the Walton Centre (a neurology hospital in Liverpool) within four days. So it was pretty quick.
She continued: "I think my mum and dad were more worried than me, I know they were more worried. Dad cried in the hospital room when I was diagnosed, when they told me there was a tumour in my brain."
Emma said as a teenager she didn't really process the severity of her illness and wanted to go back to her 'normal' life and finish her A levels. It's only now that it has returned and she has children to consider that the gravity of the diagnosis has really hit her.
At 17-years-old, she was told that the tumour was grade two and it was slowly growing but would always eventually return despite surgery. The mum recalled: "I didn’t cry, it was only recently when they told me it had come back did I cry.
"Back then I didn’t have any kids, I was 17 I thought I was invincible. I was in my A level years, I just wanted to get back and do my A levels. All I wanted to do was just go home, go back to normal life."
Fortunately, the surgeon was able to completely remove the tumour and Emma didn't need any further treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. She has been having regular scans since her first diagnosis and sadly in June 2019, one of these scans showed that the tumour had returned after she suffered her first seizure in six years.
Her consultant told her in December 2020 she was concerned about how quickly the tumour was growing and advised she underwent surgery to remove it again. However, her operation was postponed after a Covid outbreak at the hospital as medics told Emma there was a 'very real chance' she 'wouldn't make it' if she caught the virus while her immune system was weakened.
Three years on and she is still waiting for the tumour to be removed. She said: "This was the first time it had come back.
"After it was removed before he (her consultant) didn't really want to give me a timeframe but he said on average it'll be roughly about seven years before it comes back, that’s usually the case for most people. A few years ago, I started to get the migraines again, and the dizziness, I just started to feel how I did the first time I was diagnosed, so I knew there was something going on.
"And then at my next MRI they confirmed it started to grow. I still haven’t had a date so I am in limbo now.
"My health is getting worse as I'm getting older. I'd rather him do the surgery now. If I've got a fighting chance, I've got more of a reason to get through it now. My kids need me."
Emma is a mother to four children aged three, five, 13 and 14-years-old and said her diagnosis feels very different the second time around. She said: "It's really got to me and I think it is probably because I've got the children to think about, the first time around it was just me. I try not to think about it too much."
The mother has suffered around seven seizures in a fourteen-month period and says she is worried they are being caused by the tumour growing or spreading without her knowledge. She said: "Normally my seizures are because I've forgotten to take my medication, or I've not eaten so my blood sugars are dropping and it affects the electrolytes.
"But this last one was unprovoked, I’d made sure I had taken my medication, I’d eaten at every meal time but I just went down. I just blacked out and had a seizure. I want answers you know, is it because it is spreading?"
She added:"It is definitely getting worse. So that's what's making me think, right, okay, it is the tumour?"
Emma's kids are aware of what's happening with their mum's health as her husband works away during the week and they need to know what's going on if she was to have a seizure in front of them.
She explained: "I've got a 14-year-old, he's had to deal with seizures since he was three years old. So I had to teach him how to use my phone and how to open the door to let my dad in.
"My 13-year-old is autistic and his way of dealing with it is to just shut off. I don't know if it's just his way of coping with it or he just doesn't get it.
"Everyone's got a different coping mechanism. I've got a five-year-old and she knows that mummy falls over and mummy has to lie down and sleep and she's caring most of the time or she will sit and she'll just give me a cuddle, which is nice.
"And then I've got the three-year-old who is a little whirlwind most of the time, but when I've had a seizure, he sits beside me and he calms down. I don't hide it from them.
"They know that it will make me sick and maybe I'll have to have an operation so they're going to have to be good for daddy." Emma is now on a watch and wait scheme with a follow up scan in June to assess whether she is able to undergo surgery and when.
Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox
Despite her fears, the mum says she is 'determined' to beat the tumour as she says: "I have to get through it for the kids. My older two don't have their biological father in their life. I don't want them to lose me as well.
In the meantime, she has been working alongside Brain Tumour Research to try and raise awareness for the condition as well as raise money to help fund research.
She has also expressed her concerns that her children might inherit her genes although she's been reassured that it is 'highly unlikely'.
She said: "There's very little funding and is the biggest killer of under 40s. And although I've been told that it's highly unlikely my children will inherit it, there is obviously the chance of developing this brain tumour.
"I believe mine was caused by a fractured skull when I was three years old, but they can't prove that. I want to make sure that if they ever have this thing that they might have a found treatment for them."
READ MORE-
The crime-ridden Edinburgh scheme where locals had to 'watch over their shoulder'
East Lothian best friends 'pinching themselves' as they star in new travel show
Throwback Edinburgh footage takes us on a journey down the M8 - with one difference
Huge five-bedroom Edinburgh property with seaside roof terrace hits the market
The Forgotten Edinburgh plan to wipe out the Grassmarket for a Festival hub
