Tina Reeve

Tina Reeve, 61, a shipping officer from Great Yarmouth, died in 2025 following a diagnosis of glioblastoma. She was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother remembered for her warmth, humour and kindness. Her husband Dean is now sharing her story to honour her memory and raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of brain tumours, after what he believes were missed opportunities for earlier diagnosis.

Tina's husband, Dean, tells her story…

Tina was the most amazing person.  Everyone loved her. She had this infectious laugh - you always knew when Tina was around because you could hear her laughing. She lit up every room.

Looking back, I think it all started around 2020, during COVID. It was a really stressful time for us. Tina lost her sister in law, and she was there the night she passed away. Around the same time, Tina had been furloughed and then made redundant from her job as a shipping officer for a local engineering company.

I was working in Ireland for a construction company. I remember coming home in the early hours one morning and Tina said she’d had the worst headache she’d ever experienced. She had taken painkiller after painkiller and said nothing would touch it. Not long after that, she became really anxious and withdrawn, which just wasn’t like her at all. She was always so bubbly and happy.

Eventually, Tina struggled to walk far, didn’t want to leave the house, and would get very distressed. At the time, we thought it might be everything she’d been through grief, stress, but looking back now, I believe that’s when the brain tumour symptoms started.

Tina thought she was going to die, and we thought she was having a break down.

Our son James, 29, who lived in London, came home to visit to see if he could cheer her up. We would take her out for an hour each day to somewhere nice like our local pub, have some lunch. Tina didn't want to be at home all the time but she also disliked going out. Sometimes, when I had to leave her at home, she would burst into tears.

After repeated visits to the doctor, Tina eventually had an MRI scan at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, but it wasn’t done with contrast, which is why I believe nothing showed up at that time. She was diagnosed with labyrinthitis.

Over the next couple of years, things seemed to improve. We purchased a motor home and decided to travel the country. She was more like herself again, the Tina everyone knew and loved. We went on holidays, spent time together, and made memories.

But in May 2023, things started to change again. We went to Rome, and she just wasn’t right. She thought it was age-related. At the time we were sightseeing at the Colosseum, so our daughter Katherine, 34, who was on the trip with us took Tina to a café to sit down and she just sat there with her head in her arms. By August, her symptoms were getting worse; dizziness, pressure in her head and feeling spaced out.

Two weeks later Tina had to have a day off work due to her symptoms. She contacted her GP on 6th November and was prescribed betahistine to help ease the pain. By the 22nd November the medication she was subscribed almost made her feel back to normal.

By 1st April, Tina gave up on her GPs after that and went through her work health insurance to a private doctor. Sadly, he also let her down, discharged her although he noted her “many odd” symptoms as dizziness, buzzing ears mainly on her left side, pressure feeling in her head, fatigue, and auto sensation across the bridge of her nose and forehead, her glasses feel uncomfortable. The doctor said the crystals in her ears were dislodged and that is what was causing the symptoms. The doctor then performed the Epley manoeuvre on Tina. Tina was diagnosed with BPPV (benign peroxysmal positional vertigo) prescribed amitriptyline and sent home.

Tina felt better for a while, but I have since found out that head pressure, which is one of her symptoms is not a symptom of BPPV and neither is sinus pain. The BPPV diagnosis should have been ruled out after 4 weeks, as symptoms persisted after this time. but wasn’t by the specialist or GPs.

By 12th April Tina went back to the private doctor; again, her symptoms were buzzing ears, pain in her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose. The doctor booked Tina in for a CT scan on her sinus, the results of the scan was clear, but still no scan of her brain, another missed opportunity in hindsight. Tina was discharged but she was still suffering.

In May we went on holiday to Cyprus, while there Tina would steam her sinuses to alleviate the pain and pressure. I didn't understand why she needed to do this if the CT scan showed that her sinus was clear. We had a lovely holiday and walked for miles. Tina had good days and bad days and we made the most of the good days.

We went on holiday to Devon in the July and Tina started to get weaker. Tina contacted her doctor again with ongoing dizziness. And again, her symptoms were noted as BPPV. All the while, she was getting worse. Tina became anxious and worried that she would begin to feel how she did in 2020.

Tina went back to the doctor in August; she was really beginning to suffer. Tina was given more medication, citalopram, which is an anti-depressant. This did not help her.

By 9th September 2024, Tina was in a really bad way, and she wrote to her doctor. She was experiencing severe head pressure, dizziness, blurred vision, and she even said the pressure in her ear was so severe that it felt like it was going to pop. The doctor wanted to prescribe Tina Beconase. Tina literally had to insist on a scan just to put her mind at rest.

Finally, she had an MRI. At first, we were told one scan was clear, but then we got another message - there was an abnormality.

Four weeks later, on 17th October 2024, we received Tina's scan results and were told she likely had a high-grade glioma. Four years after she initially went to the GP with symptoms.  Tina was then put on a two-week referral to see an oncologist.

Hearing the diagnosis was just devastating. We broke down and cried. It was awful.

  Tina had further scans and was referred to specialists. Not knowing what lay ahead, James, who was living in Australia at the time, came to help. Even with the delayed diagnosis, things moved slowly with weeks between meetings, scans and appointments.

On 23rd October Tina was sent for a full body scan to see if the cancer had spread. Thankfully, it hadn’t. Tina was then put on an urgent two-week referral; it was the longest two weeks of our life.

It was horrific to be told for four years that nothing was wrong with you and then to be told you have incurable cancer.

We went to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where Tina had motor skill and cognitive tests to see if she was suitable for surgery. Tina passed every test with flying colours. The registrar said if they didn’t know Tina had a tumour they would never consider it.

We were given a carrier bag of pills, filled with steroids and other medication, and sent home to wait for a referral for treatment options. Only three months ago we were on holiday and now I was reading leaflets telling me how bad it was going to get.

We then went to a meeting at Addenbrookes Hospital where we met with the surgeon and they shared the most recent MRI results. The doctor said that Tina’s tumour was not operable.

We asked if there were trials available, they were doing trials at the time but they said surgery would be the only option and even that would be too dangerous because trying to remove the tumour from Tina’s brain would be like taking mud out of sand, they would end up taking too much sand.

It was another kick in the teeth. After the appointment, we got to the hospital entrance and we just collapsed. Every turn was bad news.

Tina had one seizure on 12th November, the only one she ever had, and after that, her mobility was affected. She was taken to the James Paget Hospital and explained that it was a focal seizure. They gave her CT scan and said that the tumour was so deep in her brain that if they didn't know it was there, they wouldn't have seen it. Tina’s right leg never recovered, and she needed a walking stick. She wasn’t quite the same physically, although she was still herself in every other way.

She was so strong through it all. Even after everything, she was still smiling, still making jokes, still thinking about everyone else.

Tina had to go back to Addenbrookes three days later for an MRI and pre-op for her biopsy surgery. She had a biopsy surgery on 27th November, when they confirmed that she did in fact have a glioblastoma.

We were called back to the hospital on 5th December and the nurse explained to us that Tina had four to six months without treatment and six to 12 months with treatment. We all walked out to the corridor and fell apart.

We were then sent back to Norfolk and Norwich on 9th December to see an oncologist and were told that radiotherapy treatment would begin in two months. We read the side effects, and it was scary: dementia, disability and brain damage. Tina didn't want that, so we decided against radiotherapy treatment and instead had oral chemotherapy, which began on 19th December, two months after an already horrendously delayed diagnosis, it is just all too slow when you have a highly aggressive tumour. Treatment should be in days not months.

We had Christmas together. It was hard, but we made the most of it. Then we had her birthday in January – her 61st – and tried to celebrate as best we could.

By February, Tina became bed-bound. But even then, she was still Tina, smiling, laughing, enjoying time with the family, especially her grandchildren. They were her world.

The last word Tina said to me was my name on my birthday. She died peacefully on 3rd April 2024, surrounded by her family.

Tina was the kindest, most loving person you could ever meet. She always put everyone else first. Family was everything to her. She adored her children and her grandchildren — they were her whole world.

She had such a brilliant sense of humour. She loved to laugh, loved her comedy shows, and just made everything better. Every family gathering, every moment, she made it special.

What’s so hard is knowing how many times she asked for help, how many times she went to the doctors with symptoms that we now know were linked to a brain tumour.

I truly believe that an earlier scan could potentially have changed so much, and perhaps given Tina more time. She passed away just 5 and a half months after her diagnosis, and with that came the loss of so much hope for her and for all of us who loved her.

As a family, we are not only grieving Tina’s loss, but also living with the feeling that her symptoms may have deserved further investigation much sooner. I want to raise awareness that brain tumours do not always present with the “classic” symptoms people expect, such as seizures, sickness, vision changes or slurred speech. Tina experienced none of those. Instead, she had eight other symptoms that seemed unrelated or minor on their own.

Please listen to your body and trust your instincts if something doesn’t feel right. If you are experiencing ongoing or unusual symptoms involving your head or neurological health, don’t be afraid to ask questions, seek support, and push for further investigation, including a scan if appropriate. Earlier answers can make an enormous difference, not just for Tina, but for so many others and their families.

And make the most of every moment. Life can change so quickly.

My friend, Mick, has taken on a challenge to climb 60 mountains at the age of 60 to raise much-needed awareness and vital funds to find a cure. Each year, nearly 13,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour, yet just 1% of the national spend on cancer research is allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002.

Tina deserved so much more. But she will always be remembered for her love, her laughter, and the incredible person she was.

Dean Reeve
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 touched by Tina’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.