Salisbury Brain Tumour survivors share pre-diagnosis stories
Gav Burden and Louise Worthington's stories are similar to that of 11-year-old Tia Gordon
Two brain tumour survivors from Wiltshire have told Greatest Hits Radio that their diagnosis stories are similar to that of an 11-year-old girl in Northampton.
It was revealed this week that Tia Gordon was seen 30 times by doctors before getting her illnesses diagnosed as a brain tumour.
Doctors had originally told her she was suffering from sickness bugs and migraines and had her glasses prescription changed four times before the diagnosis.
It's led the Brain Tumour Charity to continue calls for a national strategy to speed up diagnosis times.
More than 20 pain killers every day
For Gav Burden and Louise Worthington, both from Salisbury, it's a similar story.
Gav, who's been living with his tumour for 28 years, told GHR earlier this year, that he'd been suffering migraines every day for over two years before his tumour was confirmed.
He said: "I was literally pumping myself full of strong painkillers to get rid of the pain, sometimes in excess of 20 a day, just to get rid of the pain."
As a result of the high volume of painkillers Gav was taking, his blood had become so thin that there was a chance of him haemorrhaging during surgery after his tumour had been found.
Gav told GHR he was informed that his tumour could have been with him since he was a child. But he had no symptoms until his early 20s.
"If there would have been a sign from 8-12 years old, then that might have triggered something," he said.
'No one saw me like that'
Louise was also dosed up on ibuprofen and paracetamol, before moving to naproxen. She self-medicated for a year and a half while she suffered numbness and seizures, where the left-side of her body would go into spasm.
But as they lasted 30 seconds or so, by the time she reached a doctor, no symptoms were present.
"Nobody actually saw me like that and everyone was saying, well, 'you're fine'".
Lou visited a stroke specialist after one doctor at Salisbury Medical Practice suggested she may have Jimmy clots in her brain - but the stroke specialist dismissed her concerns and instructing Lou to carry on self-medicating.
While the specialist wasn't wrong, Lou was left feeling her tumour could have been found sooner.
Fortunately, she was later able to have it removed.