Starting new cures this Brain Tumour Awareness Month

Defying all odds

Also from Aberdeen, Suzanne is a mother of two with her husband Owen and runs her own business from her spare room. She is also currently living with stage four glioblastoma.

Just 5% of people will survive five years or more after a glioblastoma diagnosis – the most aggressive type of brain cancer. In 2014, Suzanne’s consultant told her she’d only have a year to live. But amazingly, six years on, she said: “it was a really hard time – out of nowhere, I suddenly found myself having vacant moments, where I couldn’t hear, speak or even breathe. When the doctors told me I had a tumour the size of a golf ball in my brain and that I’d only have a year to live, I had my two children (aged four and seven at the time) and husband to think about.

“Now six years on, I’m so thankful for research and for the treatments, surgery advances and drugs that were and are available to me. I didn’t think I’d get to see my 40^th birthday, let alone see my sister get married and have children of her own.

“When I heard that the Scottish charity, Worldwide Cancer Research, was itself dedicating almost £200,000 into my cancer type, I was completely overjoyed. Any research that can help us get closer to finding cures, clinical trials and everything in-between is incredible. And the fact it’s a charity close to home starting the research across the world makes it even more incredible.

“I want to be a Grandma and to be able to live my life like I should be able to. And thanks to charities like Worldwide Cancer Research, I might be able to.”