Ayr brain tumour woman in daily pain after 18-month diagnosis delay

An Ayr woman who was misdiagnosed for 18 months before being told she had a brain tumour admits she lives with pain everyday – more than a decade after her diagnosis.

In 2009, blurred vision and severe headaches took Heather Dearie to four different doctors who diagnosed her with everything from migraines, stress and having an underactive thyroid.

But after then going deaf down one side and a GP finding nothing wrong with her ears, Heather was finally given an MRI scan that discovered a benign tumour on her brain.

By then it was too late, as she had to come to terms with living with facial paralysis, 50 per cent deafness, balance and vision issues, fatigue, nerve damage and muscle spasms, issues Heather believes wouldn’t have incurred if the tumour had been discovered when she first started having problems.

She said: “I was angry and frustrated at the time, but now I am just so used to it all.

“If I woke up and I wasn’t in pain, I would wonder what was wrong with me, as I haven’t had a pain-free day since 2010.”

Before adding: “At the time, it was just so frustrating, because you are constantly going to the doctor, and they are just fobbing you off with just normal illnesses.

“I knew there was something not right, but I didn’t expect it to be a brain tumour.”

According to data published by Public Health Scotland last November, brain cancer patients in Scotland are the most likely of all cancer patients to be diagnosed in A&E – not at a GP.

“Nothing’s changed,” Heather continued.

“It’s still very much a post code lottery, and there are still people being diagnosed too late.

“There are still people dying because they are diagnosed too late, there is no change since I was diagnosed in 2010.”

Heather is heading to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday to call on MSPs to support her in putting in place a gold standard timed diagnostic pathway for primary care.

She will attend a Parliamentary reception to mark Brain Tumour Awareness Month.

Heather finished: “I’d just like MSPs to be more proactive in brain tumour, because more people under 40 dies from brain tumours than any other cancer.

“But it’s still very much unknown to a lot of people.”

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