Dentistry student has giant tumour removed from BRAIN and passes exams two weeks later

A DENTISTRY student got top grades in her university exams just two weeks after undergoing brain surgery to have a tumour removed.

Sarah Tomlinson, 35, defied the odds and qualified for her dream job as a dental hygienist, completing an eight-day placement, two final exams, and a 3,000 word essay just days after the operation.

She achieved a distinction in her oral health science foundation degree at the University of Essex despite battling headaches so painful they left her in tears.

The high achiever had suffered painful headaches for years, but finally saw a specialist in April this year, just months after getting married to husband Dean, 31.

Speaking out on her experience to raise awareness of brain injury charity  which supported her during her journey, Sarah said: "Due to me being in my final year at university, I battled on in pain.

"In the early stages, I waited until no one was around so I could cry.

"When the pain was bad, it left me unable to talk and kept me awake at night.

"The pain became so severe it could take me up to 20 minutes to climb a flight of stairs.

"The major headache struck me back in March, after the gym, I'd just done a body pump class so I didn't think anything of it and just put it down to dehydration.

“But it never went.

"What followed was doctors’ appointments, all giving me painkillers, antibiotics and nothing helped.

"They put it down to all sorts of things, stress, migraines so eventually I asked to see a specialist as I was in agony."

After finishing her second term in her final year at the University of Essex, Sarah finally got the bad news – there was an abnormality in her CT scan results.

Despite being diagnosed with the tumour over her Easter term break, Sarah was determined to finish her course and even put in a request for the surgery to be pushed back so she could finish her exams.

But the unbearable pain returned, and she was told she would have to get the tumour removed in the weeks leading up to her exams.

She said: "I sat my exams just two weeks and three days after the surgery.

"I don't know how I did it, I took all my stuff to hospital and I was studying even before going in for the operation.

"The nurses and doctors were looking at me like 'what are you doing?' as I had all my books out on the bed.

"I had about nine days of rest after the operation then got back to studying again."

Thinking back to the harrowing experience, Sarah said: "If it wasn't for uni, it could have been totally different.

"I didn't have time to get depressed or think negatively as I was so focused on getting the degree, I'd been working towards for six years so I wasn't going to just give up on it all last minute.

"My husband has been so good, very supportive of me, he'd be there with me in hospital every day.

"He said his biggest challenge was getting me to actually rest - he'd come home from work and find me busy doing something or with my nose in my books."

Sarah now works part-time as a hygienist, and was named Most Inspirational Person and Leavers Queen at her university leaver’s ball.

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