LAUREN Freeman mistook her seizures for “WiFi issues” during video calls – until she realised it wasn’t a tech glitch, but symptoms of a brain tumour.
“I’ve always been a daydreamer, especially when I’m tired and being in my final year of uni, I thought that’s all it was,” the now 22-year-old primary school teacher said.
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Her symptoms began six months earlier while she was studying primary education with QTS at the University of Winchester.
During daily FaceTime calls with her family and boyfriend, JJ Morris, 22, a retail fixture technician, she experienced vacant seizures.
She said: “J went to a different uni so I mostly saw him at the weekend and he had started noticing these little moments on FaceTime when I would blame it on Wi-Fi, and then he noticed them face-to-face where I went quiet.
“I brushed it aside, but he was clearly worried.”
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When she went home for Christmas, she brought it up with her family.
She said: “I told them what J had noticed, and they said they’d seen something similar too – there was a time I froze on FaceTime, where I blamed it on connection issues afterwards.
“They were supportive, and we booked a doctor’s appointment straight away.”
An MRI scan at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge revealed she actually had a benign epidermoid tumour in her brain in June 2024.
Benign epidermoid tumours in the brain are not typically deadly, according to The Brain Tumour Charity.
They are non-cancerous growths made up of skin cells and usually grow very slowly.
However, their location and size can cause complications, such as pressure on surrounding brain tissue, which may lead to symptoms like seizures, headaches, or neurological issues.
‘Brain tumours are indiscriminate’
Lauren now takes daily medication to manage various ongoing symptoms, including seizures, déjà vu episodes, and prolonged auras – a type of long migraine.
She said: “Despite my diagnosis, I’m able to live a normal life and I’m thankful to the medical team who has looked after me so well.
“Brain tumours are more common than people might think.
“I’m proud of myself for still graduating Uni with a first and getting to work a full-time job that I absolutely love.
“It was a scary time, I didn’t know what having a brain tumour meant but my family have been very encouraging as have my uni and the school I now work at.”
She is campaigning with the charity Brain Tumour Research to raise awareness of the disease by taking part in 200k In May, Your Way – a challenge where participants can cover the distance in any way they like.
Lauren has already raised £700 for the charity.
She said: “I want to use my own experience of the disease, to help other people.
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“We must invest in research into brain tumours so that people can have access to the best and most accurate treatments.”
Charlie Allsebrook, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “Lauren’s story is a reminder that brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age.
“The number of brain tumour diagnoses has increased by 11 per cent in the last decade, yet just 1 per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002.
“It’s with the support of people such as Lauren that will help us closer to finding a cure for all types of brain tumours. Good luck to all taking on the month-long challenge.”
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Symptoms of a benign brain tumour
A benign brain tumour is a mass of cells that grows relatively slowly in the brain.
Benign means it in not cancerous.
Non-cancerous brain tumours tend to stay in one place and do not spread.
Some slow-growing tumours may not cause any symptoms at first.
When symptoms occur, it’s because the tumour is putting pressure on the brain and preventing a specific area of the brain from working properly.
As the tumour grows and increases pressure in the skull, you might experience:
- New, persistent headaches that are sometimes worse in the morning or when bending over or coughing
- Feeling sick all the time
- Drowsiness
- Vision problems, such as blurred or double vision, loss of part of your visual field and temporary vision loss
- Epileptic seizures that may affect the whole body, or you may just have a twitch in one area
See a GP if you develop any of these symptoms.
They’ll examine you and ask about your symptoms.
If they suspect you may have a tumour or are not sure what’s causing your symptoms, they may refer you to a brain and nerve specialist for further investigation.
Source: NHS
