For 37-year-old new mum Lisa from Essex, the joy of welcoming her first baby turned to fear when a seizure after her emergency caesarean revealed a 5cm meningioma. Having faced years of unexplained symptoms before her diagnosis, Lisa is now rebuilding her life while campaigning to raise awareness of the disease that changed her life.
Lisa tells her story…
Being a mum was something I’d always dreamt of. When my marriage broke down in 2021, I decided to pursue having a baby on my own through IVF.
In preparation for becoming pregnant, and as a way of dealing with my separation, I joined a gym. It became a way for me to get my body in the best possible shape whilst also helping me out mentally.
Between my full-time job working in IT, I was lifting heavy weights and working on getting to a place of happiness, mentally. I’d say I was the healthiest I’d ever been.
On 30 January 2023 I was still in my marital home when I started to feel unwell. My body tensed up and I called my mum on the phone. She came over and saw the left side of my body spasm. Mum is a retired nurse and at the time thought what we later found out was a focal seizure, could be a stroke.
She called an ambulance which took me to Colchester Hospital.
Tests for a possible stroke came back fine.
I also told the medical team I had some pain around my kidney and a CT scan confirmed there was an infection. I asked the doctor about my body spasming and he said it must have been the pain from the kidney infection. After an overnight stay I was discharged with antibiotics to clear the infection.
I felt disheartened. I knew my body and what I felt wasn’t right.
The next month I had a fall down the stairs after my legs gave way underneath me.
I went to my GP who heard my concerns regarding symptoms, which alongside the focal seizures now included leg weakness. After treating my thumb, which I injured during the fall, I was sent home with no further tests.
Like clockwork, my focal seizures happened every month, well into the summer. Around the same time every month for one-two minutes my body shook. I remained fully conscious and aware it was happening and they became almost predictable.
I went to my GP a further three times. I had blood tests and was told my symptoms were likely issues with the nerves in my body and would be something I’d have to live with.
During this period, I was also experiencing migraines and occasional blurred vision. I turned to the internet for answers and searched for what could be the cause of my symptoms.
By the third GP appointment around November, is when I really felt listened to. The doctor made a referral to neurology. She told me she suspected my symptoms were signs of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a condition I also thought I could have developed according to my own research.
Whilst waiting for the referral, I continued working, going to the gym and taking steps to have a baby on my own, which was all ticking along. My seizures were part of my life and I could manage things as they were.
At the beginning of February 2024, I found out the IVF had worked and I was pregnant. I was loving pregnancy despite being sick every day and having body parts swell, both of which I was assured were normal in pregnancy.
Appointments with my midwife were four-weekly due to complications with the umbilical cord and placenta. Again, nothing completely out of the ordinary for what can happen in pregnancy and everything was okay considering.
My life was going well. I met my partner, Ollie, at the gym and we became friends before getting together. In September 2024, I temporarily moved back in with my parents as my ex had moved back into our old house, and it made more sense for me to stay with them in preparation of the baby arriving.
I started to stay at Ollie’s during the weekends to give my parents a break from staying with them the whole time. This arrangement worked well. Ollie gave up his bed for me and for one night he slept on the sofa.
In late September, instead of the usual Saturday and Sunday stay with Ollie, I asked him if I could stay on the Friday night as well. He agreed, although he was working until 4am as a medic on an SOS bus.
At this point I was 38 weeks pregnant and struggled to get to sleep comfortably in the bed. I moved to the sofa which was free as Ollie was still at work.
In the morning I woke up as normal and felt fine, however this was short lived before I had another focal seizure.
This time it lasted 15 minutes instead of the one or two I was used to.
As soon as it finished, another started.
As they were happening, I texted Ollie - who was still sleeping - updates so he could keep track too.
Finally, it passed and I got up and had something to eat and went to the toilet. Sitting on the loo I felt my body twitch uncontrollably and I had severe cramp in one of my hands. I screamed for Ollie who took one look at me and swore with fear from seeing my whole body jolting.
My next memory was waking up in resus in Colchester Hospital surrounded by doctors, nurses and a midwife. Various pads and wires were being stuck and connected to my body and I had a strap that went all the way around my huge belly and I could hear the baby’s normal rhythmic heartbeat.
I was disorientated and had no idea what had happened or how I got there.
Doctors told me I’d had a tonic-clonic seizure which had lasted 35 minutes, Ollie said he initially thought my scream was in his dream.
When my mum arrived we both burst into tears.
Noah was born the same day (28 September) by emergency c-section.
Whilst in theatre to deliver him, I felt my body begin to twitch. I asked my mum if she could see my body jerking as I couldn’t be sure if it was related to the c-section. She confirmed it looked like the start of a seizure and I was given lots of medication so it didn’t progress.
The moment they placed my beautiful healthy baby on my chest was the most surreal moment of my life. He wasn’t meant to be here for another two weeks and a moment I’d dreamt of for so long was unfolding in a manic and unplanned way.
I had another seizure in recovery which doctors thought was linked to eclampsia a disorder in pregnant women linked to high blood pressure. Now Noah was out, I found that my seizures were still being attributed to everything apart from what was actually the cause.
Days after returning home, I was back in hospital after having a seizure shortly after I breastfed Noah.
It lasted six minutes and luckily I was able to call out to my mum.
I was blue lighted to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford where I had a CT scan which showed something abnormal. An MRI scan confirmed I had a brain tumour.
The whole time I was having seizures I’d been searching online for the possible cause. I’d narrowed it down to either MS or a brain tumour, so when the news that I had a 5cm tumour growing on my brain came, I wasn’t shocked.
My family struggled with the news but I remained positive, assuming it would be cut out of me and I’d carry on as normal. In life, I’ve always had a sunny outlook on things and despite this life-changing news, I remained calm and focused on what can be done rather than what I might lose.
I stayed in hospital for two-and-a-half weeks as I was petrified what might happen if I went home. The nurses on the ward were incredible and I was given a side room so Mum could bring Noah to visit me.
That was an incredibly difficult period. I made the tough decision to have Noah stay with my parents as I thought that was best for him, being so young. This meant I had to stop breastfeeding and I only saw him during visiting hours. It wasn’t how I envisioned being a first-time mum and that was hard to process.
I was terrified of going to sleep for fear I’d wake up and have another seizure. With the support of Ollie and my mum, I advocated to stay in hospital until I had a date for my surgery. That came eight weeks later on 5 December at Queens Hospital in Romford.
The wait felt like forever but my neurosurgeon, Mr Pollock, explained this was the soonest they could safely operate due to the fact I’d had major surgery to deliver Noah.
When I changed into the hospital gown and compression socks, everything became a bit more real for me.
Seven hours later I was out of theatre and in the high dependency unit. My mum was waiting for me at the door onto the ward.
A doctor I’d not met before greeted me and said they were pleased with how everything had gone.
My tumour was confirmed as a meningioma. The doctor told me if I was going to get any kind of brain tumour, this one is the best one in terms of available treatment options.
I still live with about 5% of the mass. Its large size compressed my brain and I have epilepsy as a result. This means I’ll be on anti-seizure medication for the rest of my life which I’m getting used to.
From my surgery in December 2024 to my first follow-up neurology appointment in June 2025, I wasn’t allowed to be left alone with Noah because I was susceptible to seizures. During that time, family and friends took turns spending the days with me when Ollie was at work.
For the first three months, I was in and out of hospital, which delayed how I bonded with Noah.
It wasn’t until January this year that I started to feel like a mum.
Having Noah has kept me going, and I’ve stayed emotionally strong because I want to be there to see all his firsts — and so far, I have.
He's recently taken his first steps which was a joy to witness and I can’t wait to watch him grow up.
When I was reading online about brain tumours, I felt compelled to do something to help talk about the disease. I’m baffled how research into brain tumours receives so little of the national spend on cancer research.
No one should have to go through what I have had to go through. However, there are so many stories like mine and I'm classed as one of the lucky ones.
My brain tumour is not cancerous and was treatable. Even though I have been left with mental and physical impacts, I’m grateful every day that my little, beautiful boy is safe and healthy.
Last month, on 27 September, I organised and took part in my own Walk of Hope in aid of Brain Tumour Research. The date was very fitting as 27 September 2024 was the last normal day for the Lisa who I was. I wasn't a mama yet. I wasn't the lady with the brain tumour. I was just me. That version of me is no more and this was a cathartic way to recognise that.
For November, I’m taking part in the charity’s 99 Miles in November Facebook Challenge as another way of doing something to highlight the indiscriminate nature of brain tumours. I’m also using Instagram @lisa_woo10 where I’m telling my story about being a new mum living with a brain tumour.
In sharing my own experience, my hope is to not only raise vital funds, but to spread awareness of brain tumours and encourage people they have the power to be part of the change.
Lisa Wootten
October 2025
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 Lisa’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.
