My step-mum thought she could smell gas but our world shattered when doctors gave her months to live
A MUM was told she had just months to live after being rushed to hospital when she could smell gas.
Tina Cranshaw, 51, noticed the strange odour while on a Zoom video call with colleagues, while also suffering a headache.
The charity worker, of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, shocked her team when she started showing signs of a suspected stroke.
Step-daughter Daisy, 16, said: "During the meeting, my step-mum had the worst headache, and she could smell gas.
"She started slurring her words and her face drooped, so her colleagues called an ambulance."
Tina, mum to Theo, nine, Imogen, 28, and Abbie, 31, was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary (DRI).
Doctors initially thought she had suffered a stroke, but a CT scan revealed a shadow on her brain.
Tina was then sent to Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield for a further MRI scan in September 2020.
It was then that doctors confirmed there that she had a terminal brain tumour the size of a golf ball.
The most common symptoms of brain tumours are headaches, seizures, personality changes, loss of balance, loss of hearing, confusion, memory loss and weakness in one part of the body.
Most read in Health
People can experience changes to their vision, loss of smell and difficulty with speech.
Daisy said of the diagnosis: "It was horrible. I was doing my mock GCSEs, so it was a really stressful time.
"I was so worried, I kept thinking: 'This may be the last time I see my step-mum'."
On October 2, 2020, Tina underwent an operation to remove the tumour, called a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
But GBM tumours are the most aggressive and incurable type of tumour, with only one in four patients living a year after diagnosis.
Tina was given the devastating news that she only had between six and 12 months to live.
She has already outlived her prognosis, having been diagnosed in 2020.
In a tragic twist, the family then found out Daisy also had a brain tumour.
Daisy, of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, said her symptoms had started in February of 2020.
Her GP put her headaches down to stress and when she went to A&E, medics had told her she had a migraine.
It was only during a face-to-face appointment with her GP in September 2021 that she told him she had a blind spot on the left side of her eye.
On December 9, she had an emergency MRI scan which revealed a mass on her brain.
She was then referred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle, where her tumour was confirmed.
Luckily for Daisy, her tumour is non-life-threatening, but she said the news was still hard to take for the family.
Read more on The Sun
She said: "It was the worst thing to hear, especially after seeing what my step-mum has gone through.
"Dad is gradually losing his wife, and I thought that he could also be losing me. It was horrible.
"Fortunately, they found that some of my brain tumour is dead, which is brilliant news.
"I need to have scans every three months, but I've been told it's not life-threatening and they don't need to operate yet."
Daisy is walking 10,000 steps every day this month to raise money for .
She said: "There is such a lack of research into this devastating disease and more needs to be done.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
"Not everyone is as fortunate as me to not have to have any treatment immediately like my wonderful step mum.
"She's my inspiration in doing this as she always makes me persevere in everything I do."
