A brain tumour caused a mum to collapse in the street while carrying her two-year-old son.
Jennifer Dorian, 26, later developed dyslexia and epilepsy after the traumatic incident, which happened outside a high street sports chain.
The mum, who did a postgraduate diploma in English teaching, was forced to come to terms with feeling "useless", and now has dyslexia and struggles to read and process information
She woke-up confused in an ambulance after leaving Sports Direct in Southport, Merseyside, for some fresh air.
Jennifer told the Liverpool Echo : "I wasn't even sure what was going on and what had happened to me. I think I passed out again in the ambulance, and then woke up in hospital.
"There was this pattern of me waking up in hospital every couple of days when I was having these seizures.
"It was one of the scariest things I've ever been through, to be honest. I had no idea what was going on with me and I just wanted answers."
Jennifer started getting "really bad" headaches once every couple of months when she was 13, but they later became more frequent until it was almost constant.
They were "debilitating" at times, leaving Jennifer bedbound and also suffering depression, anxiety and nightmares while her mental health took a hit.
Collapsing in public finally forced Jennifer to seek some answers.
She kept having seizures almost every day during the week she spent in hospital undergoing CT and MRI scans until doctors, suspecting she had a brain tumour, referred her to a specialist neurology hospital.
She felt "kind of relieved" when she got a definitive diagnosis of a brain tumour.
Jennifer said: "I know it sounds really weird, but I just wanted answers for so long as to what was going on, so when they said that, I was like, 'Okay, I'm not going crazy, there's actually something there'.
"Obviously, I was scared at moments, but it was more a worry as I didn't know what was going to happen with it.
"I didn't know if it was going to spread, or if it was going to get worse."
Doctors worried it was spreading and could cause blindness when they noticed she lost a "big chunk" of her peripheral vision, leading to surgery in November 2020.
For a few months, that was it, until Jennifer started having seizures again in March 2021, resulting in an official epilepsy diagnosis.
Jennifer said:"I remember really panicking that this was going to ruin my life, and I guess it did, to some extent, because I lost my job because I couldn't work anymore in retail with epilepsy, because it was too big a risk.
"Then I ended up losing my home because I didn't have the finance to fund it anymore.
"I was very lucky that my partner said that we'd go and live together and he'd help me through everything, because without that, I don't know what would have happened."
Her story didn't end there, or with her later dyslexia diagnosis when she went back to university for a psychology MA, motivated by her experience with a brain tumour.
The seizures continue, albeit "shorter and less frequent", and her one-year scan in November 2021 revealed something on her brain, making her "really, really nervous".
She said: "I'm kind of in limbo. Is this another tumour? Or is it just scar tissue? Or is it some kind of cyst on my brain that's formed at the surgery site?
"I actually got to see the scan this time, and you could just see the big hole in my brain where the previous tumour had been taken out, and then this little, white fleck in the middle of all that mass is something new that's growing there.
"Hopefully it's not growing at all and it's not going to be dangerous, but it's hard to say at the moment.
"It's such a big thing to undergo, and I feel like I just got myself into a good place mentally and physically, and then it's like being thrown back in at the deep end all over again."
Dr David Jenkinson, chief scientific officer at The Brain Tumour Charity, said: "This Brain Tumour Awareness Month is a really important opportunity to highlight the need for progress on brain tumours and that we all stand united in defeating the devastation they cause.
"Having seizures and being diagnosed with epilepsy on top of the diagnosis of a brain tumour can be overwhelming and can cause frustration or feelings of isolation or worry, and it's vital that people are supported to deal with these impacts.
"We'd encourage anyone in need of more support in dealing with these impacts to talk to their doctor or specialist nurse, and you can also contact our Support and Information Line too on 0808 800 0004. We're here for you.
"Around 12,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year and while we have seen some encouraging steps forward in both research and care in recent years, we know progress isn't happening fast enough and we need to act now.
"We need to see greater investment in world-class research now, to help diagnose the disease earlier, to better understand the causes and find new treatments, in order to give those affected hope of more time to live and a better quality of life. A cure can't wait.
"As a charity, we are determined to invest another £40m in forward-thinking research over the next five years to help double survival and halve the harm the disease causes.
"We also need to see greater support offered to anyone affected by the disease, right from the point of diagnosis.
"All too often we hear from people who are going through the physical, mental and financial impacts of a diagnosis and who are in need of more support.
"Our specialist teams are here to help with guidance on money worries, running online meet ups for young people and through Facebook support groups for those affected by a brain tumour.
"People handling a difficult diagnosis need to know that they are not alone and that needs to be made very clear from the start."
