Charity
Iād like to take the time to tell you a little about why working with The Brain Tumour Charity is so deeply personal to me. Each year, we will donate a percentage of our profits to the charity.
Iāll never forget Monday 11th May 2020. Nick, Mi & I should have been in Seville celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. Many people all over the world should have been in lots of different places, but a pandemic had taken hold and halted life as we all knew it. It started as a typical Monday. It was late morning when my step-dad called me at work to say my Mum was being assessed in her local hospital after waking with weakness in her foot known as foot drop. A week or so prior, mum and I had been on a dog walk together when sheād complained of aching in her right leg. We chatted about it briefly and just carried on. Never would I have imagined how our lives were going to change that day.
I donāt quite remember the moment I was told āthis could be a tumourā but I remember the absolute fear as I drove from work to be with mum. I was allowed to see her despite restrictions. We hugged, I cried and as mumās do, she told me everything was going to be ok.
She was discharged that evening with a plan to come back for an MRI scan. I hadnāt been home long when I got a call from my step-dad to say mum couldnāt stop shaking. She was having a seizure and was taken straight back into hospital that night. By Friday she was in theatre having a brain biopsy and by the following week we were having a telephone consultation with the Neurosurgeon to say mum had a Glioblastoma- An aggressive, malignant brain tumour. As a nurse, I knew instantly I was going to lose her.
For a while, mum remained mobile, albeit much slower and with an aid. She continued to have intermittent seizures. Covid meant we couldnāt try and maintain a normal life because, nothing was normal. By spring 2021 she was losing pace. Her right arm was becoming weak and she started needing help. Eventually she became immobile and with this developed a DVT resulting in a hospital admission. I couldnāt visit. When mum came home, I made the decision to step away from work to care for her and spend quality time together. I will forever cherish this time.
On 15 th August 2021 at 4:30pm we lost her. She was 66.
She was my beautiful mum and her name was Dot.