45-Year-Old Teacher Struggled At a Routine Eye Exam. An MRI Led To Her Brain Tumor Diagnosis— Understanding Meningiomas

After being referred to an eye clinic two months later for an MRI scan, she was told she had a brain tumor.

In a recent interview with SWNS, as per Cambridgeshire Live, the Northampton, England, resident said, “Brain tumors have rocked my world in the last six years.

“It is hard to believe that I am living with a brain tumor. They said that I could have been living with it for years.”

Hillier, who recounted how her dad passed away at age 73 from glioblastoma in 2018, continued, “I could have had it when my dad had his. I am lucky in some aspects.

“I do have a brain tumor but I can live with it. It is crazy knowing that I am walking around with a brain tumor.”

Hillier had 90 percent of her tumor removed during surgery at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England, in February 2024.

Since then, she’s been having followup scans to check on the tumor’s growth.

She told SWNS, “Christmas came and went and then in February 2024 I had my resection of my tumor.

“I spent time in the ICU, the same one that my dad had been in six years ago, and then had many months off work to recover from the surgery and get myself fit and healthy again.”

It wasn’t until her surgery, which she was told would “save” the vision in her right eye, was done that she was diagnosed with grade 2 meningioma.

“I’ve been told by my surgeon that if it does grow, I’ll need radiotherapy. The past year has been tough both physically and mentally,” Hillier explained further.

“But I know I’m one of the lucky ones. It could have been so much worse, just like it was for my dad.”

Prior to learning she had a brain tumor, Hillier recounted going to a lot of eye clinic appointments to understand what was wrong with her eyes.

She explained, “No one seemed to be in a rush to fix me or find out what was wrong so eventually I went to a private ophthalmologist who after only five minutes into the appointment noticed something wasn’t right and sent me for an MRI.

“Four days after the MRI, I had the phone call to say they had found a brain tumor.”

Hillier is hoping that by sharing her brain tumor story she will spread awareness for the disease and inspire others to pay attention to symptoms, as well as the importance of routine health exams.

Understanding Meningiomas, Symptoms, & When To See Your Doctor

Meningiomas aren’t technically brain tumors, Dr. Suriya Jeyapalan, director of medical neuro-oncology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Mass., previously told SurvivorNet; they are tumors that arise from the meninges the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. But the tumors can compress or squeeze the adjacent brain, nerves and vessels.

Most brain tumors aren’t actually cancerous, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Less than one third about 32% of brain tumors are considered cancerous, or malignant.

If the tumor is made up of “normal-looking cells,” that means the tumor is benign.  However, those kinds of tumors may still require surgery.

The signs and symptoms of a meningioma depend on its location, according to the National Cancer Institute, and may even be subtle at first.

Even though a meningioma isn’t technically a brain tumor, the symptoms are relatively the same as other brain tumors, such as a glioblastoma. The symptoms of a brain tumor, or even brain cancer if the tumor is malignant, can frequently and easily change, Jeyapalan tells SurvivorNet.

“But for I think this is the take home message for I think a lot of patients: Brain cancer is actually really rare,” Jeyapalan explained. “Lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, are much more common.”

“Everybody’s always scared about getting their brain tumor and, you know, ‘Oh, should I be using my cell phone or what not,’ and I tell them, ‘No, you should be much more scared about the fact that you’re, you know, you’re hypertensive, you’re diabetic, you have high cholesterol, you’re overweight, you’re not exercising enough,” she added.

Symptoms can include:

• Changes in vision seeing double or blurriness
• Headaches, especially ones that are worse in the morning
• Hearing loss
• Memory loss or confusion
• Loss of smell
• Seizures

It’s recommended that you see a doctor if you have the sudden onset of seizures, or changes in vision or memory as it could be a meningioma; most of the time, meningioma symptoms develop slowly over time, but sometimes can require emergency care.

Make an appointment with your doctor if you feel you have symptoms, such as headaches that worsen over time, that concern you. But most times, meningiomas are only discovered on scans for reasons that turn out to be unrelated to the tumor.

Making Sense of a Brain Tumor Diagnosis

According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), brain tumors account for 85-90% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors. They can either be cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign), and depending on where the tumor forms on the brain, doctors determine its type, potential symptoms, and potential treatment.

WATCH: Debunking 5G Claims Causing Brain Cancer

Signs and Symptoms of Brain Tumors

Brain tumors impact a person’s brain function and overall health, depending on their size, type, and location within the brain. Tumors that grow big enough and disrupt normal central nervous system functioning can press on nearby nerves, blood vessels, or other tissues. The disrupted central nervous system can present in various ways, making walking or maintaining balance difficult.

However, it’s important to know that brain tumors do not always cause symptoms.

Other signs of brain tumors may include:

• Headaches
• Difficulty speaking or thinking
• Weakness
• Behavioral changes
• Vision changes
• Seizures
• Loss of hearing
• Confusion
• Memory loss

Treatments for Brain Tumors

Treatment options for brain cancer depend on a variety of factors, including the size and type of the tumor as well as the grade of the tumor.

Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are options doctors use to treat brain tumors. Cancer warriors are encouraged to talk to their doctor about their situation and the best treatment options.

The prognosis for brain cancer, or how likely it is to be cured, depends on a few things, including:

• The type of brain tumor
• How fast the brain tumor is growing
• The tumor’s location
• If there are DNA changes in the cells of the brain tumor
• If the entire tumor can be removed with surgery
• Your overall health

Your doctor will be able to help you understand your specific and unique circumstances and how they relate to your prognosis.

Types of Cancerous and Non-Cancerous Brain Tumors

A brain tumor can affect you differently depending on its location and if it is cancerous. Some brain tumors are non-cancerous (or benign). According to the National Cancer Institute, some examples of these types of brain tumors include:

• Chordomas are primarily benign and slow-growing and are often found near the tailbone or where the spine meets the skull.
• Craniopharyngiomas are rare, slow-growing tumors that don’t spread to other parts of the brain or body. They form near the pituitary gland near the base of the brain.
• Gangliocytomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system that tend to form on the temporal lobe (the left or right side of the brain).
• Glomus jugulare are rare and slow-growing tumors.
• Meningiomas are rare brain tumors that usually form on the outer layer of tissue that covers the brain (dura mater).
• Pineocytomas are rare and slow-growing tumors located in the pineal gland near the middle of the brain.
• Pituitary adenomas are slow-growing brain tumors of the anterior pituitary located in the lower part of the brain.
• Schwannomas are rare tumors that grow on the cells that protect nerve cells. They are called Schwann cells.
• Acoustic neuromas (vestibular schwannoma) are slow-growing tumors that develop from the nerves that help balance and hearing.

Other brain tumors are malignant or cancerous. These kinds of tumors include:

• Gliomas are the most common form of cancerous and aggressive primary brain tumors.
• Astrocytoma (glioma) forms in astrocytes (star-shaped cells). Depending on how aggressive or fast they grow and impact brain tissue, these tumors are classified into four grades.
• Ependymomas are tumors classified into three grades depending on how aggressive or fast they grow.
• Oligodendroglioma tumors are classified into grades depending on their growth speed. Grade 2 oligodendroglioma tumors are slow-growing and can invade nearby tissue, but they may not present symptoms for many years before detection. Meanwhile, grade 3 oligodendroglioma tumors proliferate.
• Medulloblastoma tumors are classified into four different grades depending on their aggressive nature or how quickly they grow.
• Glioblastoma, which is considered a central nervous system (CNS) tumor, is the most common and aggressive brain tumor in adults.

Resilience Through Adversity

SurvivorNet specializes in covering the lives of people who overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Often, seeing the positive helps them maintain their resilience.

Dr. Zuri Murrell, an oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spoke to SurvivorNet about the role of a positive outlook on survival rates: “I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life.”

Resilience: Staying Positive Despite Adversity

Meanwhile, resilience is an important trait, but not the easiest to build. When building resilience, the ultimate goal is not to avoid tough times, but to be able to bounce back from them. And yet, when they are faced with an overwhelming, life-changing situation, how do people shift their view? How do they learn to see the problem as temporary, rather than permanent, and figure out a solution?

It’s complicated, because building resilience is more about your mental and emotional fortitude than anything else. According to the American Psychological Association, “the resources and skills associated with more positive adaptation (i.e., greater resilience) can be cultivated and practiced.” In other words, resilience is not something you’re born with, which should be encouraging. Instead, after every challenge in your life, you build more and more resilience to those hard times.

Building resilience is down in the same way you build muscle, through patience and steady exercise of the skill.

Some lessons learned from other cancer warriors SurvivorNet has covered include being willing to learn, spending time with people who inspire you, allowing yourself to grieve, being flexible, and leaning in to your community for support.

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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