England footballer says arachnophobia led to brain tumour diagnosis

Brain Tumour Research

2 min read

A former England footballer was diagnosed with brain cancer after fainting at the sight of a spider.

Amy Carr, 23 at the time, remembers walking “frantic laps” around her bedroom after being confronted by a house spider – and then waking up surrounded by paramedics. Doctors told Amy that the episode was caused by arachnophobia (a fear of spiders).

Amy, from Hemel Hempstead, said: “I’d never reacted that way to anything before. I knew I didn’t like spiders, but blacking out seemed like an extreme response.” At the time she was playing professionally in Norway, after a four-year football scholarship in Chicago.

Amy had two further incidences of blacking out. She was at the gym both times and there were no spiders present. It was an MRI scan in 2015 that finally found the golf-ball sized high-grade tumour growing on her brain that was causing these seizures.

The footballer had an awake craniotomy, which left her unable to walk and talk for eight days, alongside radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Amy’s treatment was followed by extensive physiotherapy, which helped her regain her mobility and speech.

Recalling her treatment, Amy said: “The first time I spoke after surgery was in response to the nurses asking me how I was. I replied with my GCSE grade C French of ‘comme ci, comme ça’. The next day I was back to speaking English.”

Now monitored with regular scans, she said: “I used to be able to kick and throw a ball from the goal to the halfway line, now I can’t. I’m still working on my coordination and have worked hard on my fitness, including training for and running long distance.” Her story has since been covered in online news sites, including the Mirror.

Amy has put her training to use, fundraising for the Charity: back in October, she completed the Dublin Marathon in 4:28 and raised more than £2,000 on our behalf.

You can still donate to Brain Tumour Research via Amy’s JustGiving page.