A young woman who suffered a terrifying seizure while working a shift at a McDonald's drive-thru initially blamed it on a "bad hangover".
However, Danielle Freeman soon discovered that she had a benign brain tumour. After enjoying a night out with some friends from her gym, the 23-year-old woke up feeling rough but just assumed she had drank too much and went to work like normal, only to experience a two-minute seizure.
Now a personal trainer and nursery worker, Danielle said: "I was on the headset at the drive-thru and I suddenly made a screaming noise. I don’t remember any of this, but my boyfriend and my flatmate both worked at McDonald’s with me and came rushing over.”
Read more: Teacher sobs as she is cleared of sex crimes against 'obsessed' pupil
She continued: “It was my flatmate who saw me first. He saw me screaming and thought I’d seen a fly as I hate bugs. But then I slowly started to fall to the floor and a manager caught me. I know now it was a grand mal seizure, one that causes loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions, and lasted upwards of two minutes.
"I then passed out for another five. When I woke up there was a paramedic, my boyfriend and my manager all standing over me and I had no idea what was going on. I felt so woozy.”
Danielle was too disorientated to even tell the paramedics her name or where she was. She was rushed to the hospital where she was placed under observation for several hours before being referred for an MRI appointment.
While waiting for the appointment which was a few months away, Danielle was warned by doctors against partying too much. She said: “I was told I was likely over drinking.
“I was told to just have three or four drinks if I went out and to space them out with glasses of water. I felt really bad – like it was my fault.”
After going on another night out with some workmates in December 2019, she followed the doctor's orders and limited her drinks. However, she woke up the next morning to a worried boyfriend who told her she experienced another seizure in her sleep.
She said: “Compared to the first seizure, I didn’t really feel anything. I just felt like I woke up from a normal sleep. I felt tired from the night out, but I immediately stopped drinking after that.”
Looking back, Danielle, from Portree, Isle of Skye, realised she began showing symptoms in 2018 when she suddenly began feeling fatigued which she couldn't get rid of. She said: "My workouts started to slip because I was so tired all the time. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the energy. I was just so drained.”
She added: “I couldn’t get out of bed to do things. My boss at the gym suggested I had depression, but I knew it wasn’t that.
"I was just dead tired and seemed down as I was so frustrated about how I was feeling.” She continued: “But knowing there was something in my brain that shouldn’t be there was horrible.”
During a following-up appointment, doctors said a scan revealed a pea-sized mass in her brain that could have been there for as long as seven years. She added: “A consultant explained my brain couldn’t process the hangovers because of the tumour, but that having a few drinks on a night out had not caused it.
“They gave me the option of either having immediate surgery or just watching and waiting, with regular scans checking the tumour, so I decided to wait.” While being advised that the tumour might not grow for years, Danielle managed her symptoms with anti-seizure medication while cutting out alcohol and following a healthy lifestyle.
Despite her seizures stopping, a scan at the end of 2020 revealed that the tumour had begun growing. "The tumour had grown ever so slightly, but it scared me. That’s when I was officially given the diagnosis of a grade two brain tumour," she said.
"And I agreed to having surgery to remove it.” Initially, Danielle's case was deemed non-urgent, however, it escalated after her eyesight became blurry in January 2021 due to the tumour pressing against her brain.
She was admitted to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to undergo a five-hour procedure to remove the tumour in April 2021. After three days, she was discharged and recovered rapidly - which doctors attributed to her healthy lifestyle - and began six weeks of radiotherapy.
She has also been undergoing chemotherapy since last August which is due to end this month. She said: “My energy levels are so much better now.
"I work out up to five days a week. The chemotherapy can make me tired, but I feel so much better. I can even have the odd drink now, but just have to make sure I take my seizure medication.”
Now, Danielle is raising awareness and promoting The Brain Tumour Charity's Better Safe Than Tumour campaign, which launched this week.
Danielle said: “For me, more awareness of the signs and symptoms of brain tumours would have stopped me from blaming myself so much. I would have also known not to brush off the symptoms and instead to push for answers and even to suggest being sent for an MRI scan at the point when I started suffering with fatigue.”
She added: “This campaign will really help people with symptoms to ask more questions and understand what could be happening to them.
“In turn, this could lead to an all-important early diagnosis that could save lives.”
For more information on the Better Safe Than Tumour campaign, click here .
Read next:
