A Lancashire man living with the symptoms of an undiagnosed brain tumour for more than a decade is aiming to raise awareness of the disease, in order to bring about change for brain tumour patients.
Adrian Haynes, 53, lived with seizures, muscle cramps, distorted vision and memory loss as a result of a brain lesion that had been growing since his early 40s. Despite the tumour appearing in an MRI in 2009, Adrian was only diagnosed with a meningioma in May 2023, after being rushed to hospital during a seizure.
Adrian said: “I had been asking for a brain scan for years. I wrote letters, sent emails, raised it in consultations, and even explained how a nurse friend witnessed one of my seizure episodes and urged me to get a scan. Despite all this, I was repeatedly told it was just leg cramps or that I was reading too much online.”
After surgery removed the growth, Adrian’s beloved dog, Taz, died during a seizure. The post-mortem revealed a brain tumour. Less than two years previously, Adrian’s cousin, Mark, had died of brain cancer – whilst Adrian’s wife, Yvonne, was undergoing her own cancer treatment. Another cousin, Stephen, had died during an epileptic fit at 19, after which a brain tumour was also revealed post-mortem.
Adrian said: “You would not believe it if it was a film script. I was grieving while still trying to process my own diagnosis and surgery. It was a cruel twist of fate that I’ll never forget.
“I had to fight for everything – to be taken seriously, to get a diagnosis, to access support. I lost my business and our home. My mental health suffered greatly. Frontal lobe damage affects memory, emotion, and physical coordination. It’s changed my life completely.”
Now, Adrian is aiming to raise awareness of the disease to stop the devastation he has faced. As well as retraining as a mental health counsellor, he is advocating for Brain Tumour Research – including lighting up Blackpool Tower in pink and yellow for this year’s Light up the UK campaign in March, for Brain Tumour Awareness Month.
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