BRAIN TUMOUR AWARENESS MONTH

It's Brain Tumour Awareness Month! March 1st to 31st is when we come together to spread awareness about brain tumours and increase research funding. Plus, the last day of MarchFriday the 31s - is Wear A Hat Day, Brain Tumour Research's biggest event. It's a great way to show your support and have some fun while doing it. Lastly, remember that Brain Tumour Research is the only charity in the UK devoted solely to brain tumour research.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF A BRAIN TUMOUR?

The symptoms of a brain tumour will depend upon which part of the brain is affected. The most common symptoms are caused by an increase in pressure in the skull (intracranial pressure) caused by the growth of a tumour in the brain.

ARE HEADACHES CAUSED BY A BRAIN TUMOUR?

Headaches are one of the main symptoms of a brain tumour, but of course there can be many reasons for having a headache. Headaches caused by a brain tumour tend to:

• Be severe and persistent

• Often worse in the morning

• Get worse over a number of days

• Give stabbing pains if you do anything that increases the pressure in your head, for example coughing, shouting, bending over or doing exercise.

Eye Symptoms Of A Brain Tumour

Please remember that there are many reasons why people display these eye and vision-related symptoms, but if any of these symptoms have come on suddenly they may be caused by a blood clot or infections such as meningitis or encephalitis, so it is worth seeking medical advice as a matter of urgency.

• Squinting

• Worsening vision

• Blurred or double vision

• Restricted field of vision, loss of peripheral vision, blind spots

• Problems with looking upwards or controlling eye movements

• Abnormal eye movements such as flickering eyes

• Head tilt, usually because the patient is turning to see things out of the corner of their eye rather than looking straight at them

• Brief loss, blurring or “greying out” of vision, sometimes triggered by coughing, sneezing or bending down

• As the tumour grows, it may cause the eyeball to bulge forwards. This is known as proptosis.

It is always worth seeing both your GP and an optometrist (optician) to investigate such symptoms. If your doctor suspects the presence of a brain tumour, they will immediately refer you for a scan at a hospital in order to be sure whether or not one is present.

JUST 1% OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH SPEND HAS BEEN ALLOCATED TO THIS DEVASTATING DISEASE