Glenn Lilley woke thinking she was younger due to a brain tumor. PHOTO BY BRAIN TUMOR RESEARCH/SWNS
A woman woke up thinking she was 28 years younger due to a missed brain tumor.
Glenn Lilley thought she was 41 not 69 – and her grown-up kids were still teenagers.
Gran Glenn woke up thinking she was nearly 30 years younger in 2021.
The now 71-year-old was given the life-limiting prognosis after she was diagnosed with a meningioma.
In 2017 she began suffering from tinnitus and vertigo.
But following a scan, an ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT) said there was no cause for concern.
She later collapsed at home causing her to temporarily lose her memory, and an MRI scan confirmed a large mass on her brain.
Glenn from Plymouth, UK, was warned without surgery she would die within months.
Describing waking up one day in 2021, the grandmother-of-five said: “I thought I was 41, not 69, which was my actual age at the time.
”I’d lost years of my life and thought my boys, who were grown adults, were still teenagers.”
A specialist then told her the mass could be seen on the scan from 2017 and the ENT specialist had missed the then-grape-sized mass.
The tumor had grown aggressively since that scan.
She said: “I’m very much a ‘get on with it’ type of person, perhaps that’s my Yorkshire roots coming through.
“Rather than harboring any thoughts of anger towards the ENT specialist, I was determined to fight this disease.”
”I hold no blame for the fact the tumor was missed.
“The way I see things is: a gynecologist wouldn’t be looking at your feet, so I understand how the tumor could have been missed on the scan looked at by the ENT doctor.”
Glenn’s operation was delayed, following two cancellations due to a high number of COVID-19 cases.
In the meantime, she was given steroids to help reduce the build-up of pressure on her brain, and within six weeks gained three stone in weight.
She had an 11-hour operation in September and is now monitored with regular scans.
She has been told her brain tumor will grow back, but it could take ten years.
A charity that Glenn is now campaigning alongside to help reach 100,000 signatures on its petition to increase research funding, in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate.
Mel Tiley, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We are grateful to Glenn for supporting our petition and helping to raise awareness.
“For too long governments have put brain tumors on the ‘too difficult to think about’ pile. Five years after the Government announced £40 million ($51 million) for brain cancer research, less than £11 million ($14 million) has been spent.
“Patients and families continue to be let down by a funding system that is built in silos and not fit for purpose.”
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
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