Samantha Savage
Samantha Savage was diagnosed with an incurable glioblastoma (GBM) in 2022 after suffering a seizure at home. Over the next two years, Samantha’s life would be severely impacted by the disease, as she lost the ability to move and speak. She died in April 2024, at the age of 58.
This is Samantha’s story, as told by her daughter Kirsty…
Mum was 56 the year it all started. She was a perfectly healthy woman; she walked the dogs every day, never smoked, and ate right. She was an entrepreneur, ran different online businesses, and was just starting to get into property development and things like that.
She was spiritual, and would do holistic treatments from home. She had so many different qualities and had her hands in different pots.
Mum would often get these bad headaches that she couldn’t get rid of, but it never seemed that something so horrible was brewing.
A few weeks before her first seizure, my mum and dad were laughing at how much she had started to slur her words when she had a drink on holiday, as it appeared she had suddenly got tipsy. Looking back, we realise now this was just a symptom of the tumour.
The first seizure took place at home as she was going to bed in the summer of 2022.
“My dad didn’t have a clue what was happening, he thought she was dying right there.”
Mum was rushed to hospital, but they couldn’t tell us what had caused it. The next day, I picked her up from the hospital; I have no idea how they thought it was safe to discharge her seeing as they didn’t know what had happened. Later that day we were in the garden with my two-year-old daughter, and she had another seizure and collapsed to the ground.
I was eight months pregnant at the time. I called 999 and was told to try resuscitation, which didn’t seem like the right thing to do as she was still in the thick of a fit.
An MRI scan showed there was a tiny mark on her brain. It was a high grade glioblastoma, but at the beginning it was so little that they were reluctant to remove it with surgery.
By Christmas 2022, she was on the first wave of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It instantly made an impact on her. She suddenly started to look a lot more gaunt and tired. She was trying to stay positive for us, and was trying to stay active and busy despite the fatigue.
She was on a high dose of steroids to stop the seizures which caused a lot of swelling. In February, she had to be taken to hospital again, as she kept getting terrible seizures when she would go totally rigid.
“Soon, she couldn’t move her right hand or leg. She couldn’t walk on her own. It was heartbreaking to see what was happening to her so suddenly.”
I was always around to keep her spirits up and do exercises with her to hopefully get some movements back in her hands.
Things were so up and down, and she was constantly going in and out of Torbay Hospital. The staff there were fantastic every time she stayed. In the summer of 2023, the growth of the tumour was so big that we were told she likely only had six months to live.
“Towards the end, she had been struggling to eat and talk. Her brain was just shutting down.”
I just hope in her mind she was able to think of nice things. With other cancers, at least you can still speak to your loved ones.
She bravely fought this devastating disease far longer than the doctors expected, but in April 2024, she finally earned her wings. The Rowcroft Hospice team were really incredible in that final week doing such a hard job.
Unless you have been affected by a brain tumour or know someone who has, you can’t imagine just how terrible this disease is.
I didn’t know anything about this until it happened to Mum. Everything was taken from her so quickly.
“The tragedy is that by the time the first seizure happened, it was already too late.”
It’s maddening to hear that the government hasn’t invested the £40 million into research that it promised in 2018. The public need to be made more aware. It’s one of the worst things can happen to somebody, and nobody seems to know anything about it.
I'm raising money for Brain Tumour Research by running the Torbay Half Marathon to help other families facing such painful diagnoses and the grim prognosis that comes with this often-overlooked cancer, which I believe is one of the most brutal.
“In my mum’s case, it robbed her of the ability to speak, walk, think, read, write—everything that makes life meaningful became nearly impossible.”
We urgently need to raise awareness, improve the quality of life for those suffering from this disease, and, ultimately, find a cure.
Kirsty Clarke
September 2024
Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age. What’s more, they kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer... yet 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 Samantha’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