I was given just one week to live after doctors found a tumour that had been silently lurking in my brain for a DECADE
The mum-of-three reveals the heartbreaking seven words she uttered before undergoing risky 14-hour surgery
A MUM was given just a week to live after doctors found a tumour that had been silently lurking in her brain for more than a decade.
Harriet Annabelle Ward occasionally felt dizzy and tired but put her minor symptoms down to stress.
But for 10 years, a meningioma had slowly been growing in the left side of her head.
The 51-year-old had even been examined in hospital two years before her diagnosis, but doctors missed any signs of the tumour.
Generally, Harriet was relatively active and healthy, and it wasn’t until her health declined dramatically in 2021, when she clocked something serious might be wrong.
She started struggling to form complex sentences, felt exhausted all the time, was often dizzy, and had headaches and a bloodshot eye.
Harriet visited her GP surgery three times, with medics each time putting her symptoms down to stress.
But after huge bouts of memory loss and calling NHS 111, she was rushed to A&E, where an MRI scan uncovered the terrifying truth.
“They told me they had found a 2.8in (7cm) brain tumour across the left side of my head,” the singer, from Bristol, said.
“If untreated, they said I would have died in my sleep. My brain was completely gone.
“I was in shock, but I was very focused on what they were going to do and hoping it would all go well.
“I was at a point where the pressure of the brain tumour was so severe that I couldn’t think or talk properly.
“But I was very driven to still be here and survive.
“I was very friendly and active before this, so I just wanted to get well and go home.”
Harriet was diagnosed with a grade two meningioma – the most common type of brain tumour – which had “likely been growing inside her for 10 to 15 years”.
Meningiomas affect around one in 40,000 people in the UK every year.
The survival rate depends on several factors, but ranges from 25 to 95 per cent.
Harriet’s husband says he was told his wife had just one week to live.
The only way to save her life, doctors said, was emergency surgery to remove the growth.
Harriet’s children were aged five, 10 and 15 at the time, and the mum was terrified that she might not live to see them grow up.
I was dying to see my children. I felt they would be lost without me, so I knew I needed to get through this
Harriet Annabelle Ward
“The doctors weren’t sure I’d make it,” the mum-of-three said.
“I was calling all my friends and family, telling them how much I loved them, and my husband Christopher had sign all the death forms.
“Before doctors put me to sleep, I looked into the eyes of one of them and said, ‘I’d love to see my children again’.”
Luckily, her wish was granted, and she woke up from the “absolutely incredible” 14-hour procedure on December 1, 2021, to find out it had been a success.
She was left with a heavily swollen left side of her face from the bruising and trauma to the area.
Harriet said: “I never took photos until a few weeks post-op as I was black and blue.
“I looked swollen where they cut from ear to ear. I was in shock.”
Since the operation in November 2021, Harriet has been slowly recovering at home with her family.
She said of her ordeal: “I was dying to see my children, Amaryllis, Islah and Noah.
“They visited me in hospital and I was desperately wanting to be at home with them.
“I felt they would be lost without me, so I knew I needed to get through this.
“It’s been a hell of a journey, but every day it’s incredible to be here with my family.”
The near-miss inspired her to record an album, called Bristol Music World 2024, together with 22 other artists, to help raise money for Southmead Hospital, where she was treated.
Harriet added: “My music keeps me happy, healthy and is very healing.”
The most common symptoms of a brain tumour
More than 12,000 Brits are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year — of which around half are cancerous — with 5,300 losing their lives.
The disease is the most deadly cancer in children and adults aged under 40, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.
Brain tumours reduce life expectancies by an average of 27 years, with just 12 per cent of adults surviving five years after diagnosis.
There are two main types, with non-cancerous benign tumours growing more slowly and being less likely to return after treatment.
Cancerous malignant brain tumours can either start in the brain or spread there from elsewhere in the body and are more likely to return.
Brain tumours can cause headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting and memory problems, according to the NHS.
They can also lead to changes in personality weakness or paralysis on one side of the problem and problems with speech or vision.
The nine most common symptoms are:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Feeling sick
- Being sick
- Memory problems
- Change in personality
- Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Vision problems
- Speech problems
If you are suffering any of these symptoms, particularly a headache that feels different from the ones you normally get, you should visit your GP.
Source: NHS
