Mum, 25, who thought headaches were migraines now has 18 months to live

A mother experiencing severe head pressure initially dismissed as migraines has received a terminal brain tumour diagnosis. Paige Carter, 25, said she visited her GP on three separate occasions complaining of debilitating pain, only to be told she was experiencing severe headaches or side effects from her contraceptive implant.

However, the Milton Keynes resident deteriorated significantly in December while awaiting an MRI scan after an optometrist identified an inflamed optic nerve. She received the heartbreaking diagnosis in January of a grade-four glioma, with doctors giving her just 18 months to live.

The young mother has now reframed her condition as ‘life-limiting’ and is focused on creating lasting memories with her daughter Willow, who celebrates her second birthday in March.

Paige, who works as a healthcare assistant in a paediatric emergency department, said: « When the doctor said 18 months, I didn’t believe her. I’m only 25 – I’m so young.

« It broke my whole family. We didn’t understand how this could all come from a bit of head pain and pressure. »

Paige explained she initially began experiencing head pressure in late spring last year, describing the sensation as « someone squeezing her brain ». In June, she consulted her GP, who allegedly suggested she was likely suffering from migraines and prescribed an anti-inflammatory medication during a subsequent appointment.

However, Paige was experiencing the discomfort daily and during her third GP appointment in December, they suggested removing her contraceptive implant, believing it might be hormone-related. They also advised an eye examination and on December 9, an optician identified swelling in her optic nerve.

Following her description of additional symptoms, they arranged an MRI scan scheduled for January. On December 27, Paige awoke with intense pressure in her skull, found herself unable to raise her head and began vomiting.

She telephoned her parents Kate and Steve, who hurried home while her closest friend transported her to A&E at Milton Keynes Hospital. Following a CT scan, doctors informed her there was a mass in her brain and she was immediately blue-lighted to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Paige recalled: « I went straight to a high dependency neurological bed where they gave me a steroid to reduce the inflammation. They said the location of the tumour is close to my bed stem and it was blocking intercranial fluid from draining.

« I had surgery to drain the fluid, which took six hours, and my brain also began to bleed, so they had to put in a temporary drain. They took a biopsy and I was told the mass was cancer and inoperable. »

Medical professionals informed Paige she had a H3K27M-mutant glioma, measuring the size of a golf ball – 24mm in length and 46mm in width.

Paige said: « They told me I’d never be cancer-free. In the first week after my diagnosis, nobody knew what to say or how to act.

« But a family friend with the same disease was given a year to live and four years later she’s still here. It’s given me so much hope. »

Paige, currently battling fatigue and nausea, has undergone 33 rounds of radiotherapy and volunteered for a clinical trial. She is now urging the government to boost research funding for brain cancers, which are the leading cause of cancer deaths in children and adults under 40.

Paige added: « You just don’t know until you’re in this position how scary the disease is and what it can do. Brain cancers get just one per cent of all the funding for cancers. It’s such a low proportion. We’d like to see personalised treatments, more trials and turn the terminal into treatable. »

Friends of Paige have established a GoFundMe page to help her create lasting memories with her daughter Willow and ease financial stress while she is unable to work.

Paige said: « My daughter is so young and memories are going to be important. We want to go to Disneyland Paris, on a family cruise and a trip out to Cornwall. »