A MUM claims her declining vision was dismissed by doctors as migraines until she went blind – at which point a more sinister cause of her symptoms was discovered.
Tia Bradbury had been experiencing migraines and eye “flickering” for months but says doctors dismissed her symptoms as hemiplegic migraines in December last year – without doing any scans.
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The 25-year-old’s vision in her left eyesight was getting worse by the day and she became convinced something more was going on when she noticed personality changes such as irritability.
She was soon getting two to three migraines a week that left her unable to get out of bed and sometimes unable to speak, all while 22-weeks pregnant.
However Tia was “shocked” when she woke up completely blind in her left eye in April 2024 and dashed to Specsavers, thinking she needed glasses.
There, an optician told the mum-of-two to go to the hospital as her eye was not responding to the light.
Read more on brain tumours
Yet even then, the prison officer claims she had to “push” for an MRI scan as doctors were “adamant” she only had hemiplegic migraines, which can affect eyesight.
An MRI two weeks later revealed a 3cm non-cancerous tumour in the middle of Tia’s brain, which was pushing on her left optic nerve and growing quickly, causing the blindness.
Tia says she feels she was not being “taken seriously” because she was a “young girl” that looked like she was exaggerating her pain.
The mum claimed she knew something was wrong from the amount of pain she was in, as she thought it was not normal for a migraine.
Tia admitted that she was worried about her pregnancy and about how the baby would react to the anaesthetic, but thankfully the procedure in May 2024 was a success and the baby was “completely fine”.
Tia, from Crewe, Cheshire, told Kennedy News: “My eyesight just got worse and worse. I was completely blind in one eye and my right side started going a little bit as well.
“It was quite sudden, it went from flickering to not being able to see a thing. It was so strange, the weirdest feeling.
“The migraines were horrendous, I couldn’t get out of bed. Doctors were adamant I only had hemiplegic migraines, which do affect eyesight.
“I honestly just thought it was a migraine because I was told that for so long by professionals. I wasn’t expecting them to say I needed surgery.
“I knew something wasn’t right from the amount of pain I was in. No one should be in that amount of pain from a headache.
“I noticed some personality changes. I was irritated by everything. I wasn’t myself. I didn’t find joy in a lot of things. Before I found out we went on holiday to Morocco in March and I wasn’t myself at all.
“They said it could either be because of the pain I was in from the tumour, or the actual tumour which can cause personality changes.
“I literally couldn’t get out of bed, my poor partner had to do everything for me. We have a little girl and it was really difficult with her. That was the hardest part of the recovery, I couldn’t pick her up or do anything with her for quite a while which is really difficult.”
Tia’s eyesight returned
After a 12-hour surgery in May 2024, Tia’s tumour was removed and her eyesight returned, while she still has frequent MRI scans for monitoring.
The mum claimed that the hardest part about the surgery was how it affected her two-year-old daughter.
Tia said: “It was such an unnerving time because we didn’t know how I was going to react because I have a heart condition [after open heart surgery aged 11]. It was just a scary time.
“It was just really scary, I was more worried that something was going to happen to me and I would have to leave my little girl and my partner behind. That was the worst part.
“There’s so much that could have gone wrong. Just not knowing if anything would affect the surgery.
“But we did have a good support network, we made it through which is good.
“All the family really stepped up and helped out. My partner spent most of the days with me in the hospital and was looking after our daughter.
I knew something wasn’t right from the amount of pain I was in
Tia Bradbury
“My little girl, she was more affected by it after the surgery because she spent a lot of time with grandparents. When she did see me she wasn’t allowed to play with me, I wasn’t allowed to pick her up, I didn’t have any energy.
“She was probably very confused with the whole thing. But everyone was very supportive and helped her through it as well.”
Tia admitted that she “struggled” with her appearance after the surgery, as half her head was shaved off and she had a “huge” scar across her head.
Tia said: “I was very confused, afterwards. It shocked me a lot because it changed how I looked. Half my head was shaved, I had a big scar that went all the way across the head.
“That was difficult, trying to navigate that. Just the complete change when you look in the mirror.
“I really struggled with that, I’m such a young girl as well and it really affected me. It was a huge change that I didn’t really prepare for.”
The mum now urges others with similar symptoms to “trust their gut” and see a doctor.
If I had left it and not continually gone back to the hospital, I probably wouldn’t be here now
Tia Bradbury
Tia said: “I would always tell anybody that you know your body from the inside out, you need to keep pushing until you’re taken seriously.
“If I had left it and not continually gone back to the hospital, I probably wouldn’t be here now.
“It wasn’t a lot of time to process the information, it wasn’t great, I wish I would’ve been taken a bit more seriously.”
Now, Tia says that she has no migraines, no pain and a different outlook on how short and precious life is.
A spokesperson for Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are unable to comment in detail about individual patients due to confidentiality reasons but would like to emphasise that we take any issues raised regarding a patient’s care very seriously.
“We would encourage Ms Bradbury to get in touch with our Patient Advice and Complaints Team in the first instance so this can be looked into.”
Symptoms of a benign brain tumour
A benign brain tumour is a mass of cells that grows relatively slowly in the brain.
Benign means it in not cancerous.
Non-cancerous brain tumours tend to stay in one place and do not spread.
Some slow-growing tumours may not cause any symptoms at first.
When symptoms occur, it’s because the tumour is putting pressure on the brain and preventing a specific area of the brain from working properly.
As the tumour grows and increases pressure in the skull, you might experience:
- New, persistent headaches that are sometimes worse in the morning or when bending over or coughing
- Feeling sick all the time
- Drowsiness
- Vision problems, such as blurred or double vision, loss of part of your visual field and temporary vision loss
- Epileptic seizures that may affect the whole body, or you may just have a twitch in one area
See a GP if you develop any of these symptoms.
They’ll examine you and ask about your symptoms.
If they suspect you may have a tumour or are not sure what’s causing your symptoms, they may refer you to a brain and nerve specialist for further investigation.
Source: NHS
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