Carol Cooper, 53, from Hampshire, was a devoted psychiatric nurse and loving mother to twin sons, Mark and Simon. After experiencing persistent headaches, she sought help from her GP but was repeatedly given painkillers, with no further investigation into the cause of her symptoms.
Carol’s life took a devastating turn when her son Mark found her semi-conscious at home, prompting an urgent trip to hospital, where she was diagnosed with a glioblastoma. Tragically, Carol sadly died on 27th August 2000, just six weeks after her diagnosis.
Carol’s son, Mark, tells her story…
I found Mum semi-conscious at home in July 2000. She was surrounded by empty painkiller packets, and I honestly thought I was losing her right there. I called 999 straight away, but the paramedics didn’t want to take her to hospital. They thought she’d overdosed, and because she could still mumble that she didn’t want to go, they were hesitant.
But I knew my mum. She was a former nurse; she would never have taken an overdose. I had to push and persuade them to take her seriously, and eventually they agreed to get her to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.
At A&E, the doctors were immediately concerned about her level of consciousness, so they sent her for a CT scan. That’s when they found the tumour.
She was transferred to Southampton, where they did a biopsy. It was a large tumour later confirmed as a glioblastoma. Everything moved very quickly after that.
They put Mum on steroids to reduce the swelling, and she regained consciousness. That’s when we started to piece everything together.
Mum told us what had been happening, and it became clear that four different GPs had missed it. One even told her she was imagining her symptoms, and another blamed it on the menopause.
I’ve got a lot of respect for doctors, they do an incredibly tough job, but hearing that was hard to accept.
I remember sitting in the hospital and seeing a young man opposite us, he couldn’t have been more than in his 30s, and he was in agony from the pressure of a tumour. That’s when Mum said she’d been having headaches just like that. Suddenly, all the painkillers made sense to me and my twin brother, Simon.
Mum’s tumour was inoperable and she was transferred to St Mary’s in Portsmouth for radiotherapy, but there was a six-week waiting list.
I remember feeling completely lost, we were all in shock. It was really hard to understand why this was happening to her. Mum never drank and she kept herself fit by cycling and walking everywhere. Despite everything, she was incredibly brave and she stayed strong enough to put all her affairs in order.
Mum came home, and the Macmillan nurses helped me to care for her. But she declined very quickly. In the end, she needed a morphine pump to manage the pain.
Our beautiful, vibrant mother died at home just six weeks after being diagnosed.
The hardest moment for me was watching my grandmother say goodbye to her daughter. That’s something that stays with you forever.
Mum was a psychiatric nurse, and she spent her life caring for other people. She was vegetarian, hardworking, and completely selfless. Even after everything she’d done in her career, she still cared for her own mum. She had a great sense of humour and always put others first.
That’s why I’m doing everything I can now to help other people facing this diagnosis. To stop others suffering this cruel loss.
This isn’t the first time I’ve supported Brain Tumour Research. While I was at university, I was honoured to receive the Fundraising Commitment of the Year award in the students’ union for my efforts organising Wear A Hat Day, which first inspired my passion for raising awareness and funds for this cause.
This year, I’m taking on the 200k in May Your Way challenge and will cycle throughout the month to hit the target and raise vital money for research. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer, yet they receive just 1% of the annual cancer research funding. So it’s up to all of us to do what we can to fund the work taking place at the Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence to find a cure.
At Bupa, where I work, we always say early intervention saves lives. If sharing Mum’s story helps push that message forward, then it’s worth it.
Please donate if you can. We need to do more, so families don’t have to go through what we have.
Mark Stephenson
April 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 Carol’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.
