Amy Seager, 38, from New Malden in London, was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma after having an MRI scan for an unrelated back problem in March 2025. Amy had been feeling tingling and numbness on the left-side of her face for a couple of months and had also noticed that her hearing was getting worse. She underwent surgery to remove the tumour in May, and now has checkup scans every six months. Amy is now taking on the 200k in May Your Way challenge to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.
Amy tells her story…
In January last year, I started getting numbness and tingling on the left-side of my face.
At first, I thought I was maybe having an allergic reaction to something, because it wasn't just on my face.
It was like I had a line down the middle of my face, and I could feel the numbness and tingling on my tongue and throat as well
I decided to book a doctor's appointment because I had started looking online and thinking that this wasn’t normal.
In February, I saw my GP. She confirmed that I hadn’t had a stroke, and I didn’t have facial palsy. She basically said she didn’t know what the cause was; she just said that I should go back if it got worse. I felt like I had just been dismissed.
Funnily enough, the next day I had an appointment with my orthopaedic specialist to talk about my back which I’d been having problems with. I mentioned my symptoms to her; she didn’t think they were related to my back, but she recommended that I got a second opinion.
I saw a nurse, who referred me to neurology in the community. I felt like I’d been dismissed again because they didn’t assess me but instead sent me some information about functional neurological disorder (FND) which I'd never heard of. FND is an umbrella term for issues that can affect one side of the body, but when I was researching, it said my symptoms could have been early signs of MS.
It also said it could be a brain tumour, but I dismissed that idea as it seemed so unlikely
They also said that these things are normally all in the mind, which wasn’t helpful.
The nurse phoned me the following week, telling me that neurology had rejected my referral and advised that I have Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
How could they dismiss me without physically seeing me and assessing me for themselves? I requested a second opinion with another GP but I never had that appointment because my scheduled MRI scan at Kingston Hospital for my back problem came first.
The appointment letter outlined what would happen, and that once I’d had the scan, I could leave the hospital which meant I could go to work afterwards.
I had my MRI scan at around 10.30 in the morning but was then told that I needed to go back to the waiting room. Looking back, I recall the lady didn’t make eye contact or anything. At the time, I didn't really pay any mind to it, but it explains what came next.
After waiting for ages, the MRI supervisor came out. He was a really lovely guy; he kept asking me if I was okay and if I was having any headaches, but I told him I was fine. He said the doctor had looked at the scan; he could see there was something on my brain and he wanted me to go straight to Accident and Emergency.
In A&E, I was taken to a private room where a doctor told me that something had shown up on the scan.
She said: “It’s big, it's bad, it shouldn't be there, and we don't know what it is.”
The doctors said they were happy for me to go home and told me to expect a call in a week for further details. That was the longest week of my life.
The phone call I received was probably the shortest I've ever had. I was told I needed further tests and to wait for an appointment in the post.
Knowing there was something on my brain felt urgent, but it didn't feel as if it was very urgent to them.
I just wanted to scream down the phone because there was a chance I had a brain tumour, and I was terrified.
After four weeks of waiting, I got my registrar's name. I pretty much stalked him on Google and found that he was Bupa registered. I have Bupa through my work so I booked an appointment and initial consultation with him for 9th April.
That was when he gave me my actual diagnosis of having an acoustic neuroma.
When I was told I had a brain tumour, I thought I was going to die.
The brain tumour just crept up on me. I was just getting on with normal life, not realising I had this massive tumour in my head because I wasn’t being affected in big, obvious ways. When I look back now, I had reduced hearing in one ear so I should have gone to the doctors. But because it wasn't impacting my daily life and wasn’t really causing any problems I just got on with things, but these were actually the symptoms of something so scary.
I still hadn't heard anything from the NHS at this point, but the consultant said this wasn’t something that would be done privately. He said my operation would be at St George’s Hospital in Tooting in six to eight weeks.
He told me that I would lose my hearing in one side. I was absolutely fine with that because I was more worried that I was going to die.
Everything moved so quickly after that. Once St George's took over, it was like my feet didn’t touch the ground.
My operation to remove the tumour was on 13th May. It went really well; but as warned, it resulted in me losing the hearing in my right ear.
I thought half my world was going to be silent but it’s manageable and I've got cross aids, which are specialised devices for people with single-sided deafness, which really help. Because the tumour was attached to my facial nerve, they left a tiny sliver of the tumour there, because removal would have damaged the nerve irreparably, and I would be paralysed on one side of my face.
I was discharged from the hospital after four days. Because my balance would have been affected, I had to prove that I could walk unaided and get about by myself. The doctors said I had probably compensated for it for a long time without realising.
My recovery went really well. I just made sure that I walked everywhere to help my balance get back on track. I’ve just got on with it and made the best of things.
I’m now doing the 200k in May Your Way challenge to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.
This cause is so close to my heart and it’s vital that research into brain tumours is properly funded. There are so many different types of brain tumour and there needs to be more awareness and more money to research this disease. Before I went through this massive surgery, I wasn't an active person but now I go to the gym, and I’m walking 200km. It made me realise that life is really fragile and I’m not going to waste a moment.
Amy Seager
May 2026
One in three people in the UK knows someone affected by a brain tumour. This disease is indiscriminate; it can affect anyone at any age. What’s more, brain tumours continue to kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet, to date, just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease since records began in 2002.
Brain Tumour Research is determined to change this.
If you have been inspired by Amy’s story, you may like to make a donation via www.braintumourresearch.org/donate or leave a gift in your will via www.braintumourresearch.org/legacy
Together we will find a cure.
