Teenager's tumor signs dismissed by doctors as migraines from 'eating too much chocolate'

A woman was given a devastating diagnosis after no fewer than 15 doctors dismissed her symptoms as being due to 'eating too much chocolate'.

Sophie Barclay, who is now 21 years old, had been experiencing awful headaches for several years as a teenager.

However, despite visiting her GP 'dozens' of times to complain about the symptom, she said that she was 'fobbed off', saying that the experience made her feel 'like an over-dramatic teenager'.

Sophie, who is from Leicestershire in the UK, said that doctors had also seen a previous anxiety diagnosis so 'they just put it down to that'.

In addition to this, she said that doctors had asked her to start tracking the food she was eating because 'they thought I was eating too much chocolate and dairy'.

"I knew something was wrong as I'd had headaches for two years, and no one was listening," she said.

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Finally, Sophie was sent for an MRI, saying she felt as though they had done this 'to shut me up and stop me coming back'.

But when the results came back this showed a horrifying diagnosis - pilocytic astrocytoma, a form of brain tumor which affects children and young adults.

It's benign and grows slowly, but can cause symptoms similar to the ones that Sophie was experiencing.

Sophie said that it was a 'relief' to finally be diagnosed, and she was able to have the tumor surgically removed,.

But Sophie would later go on to develop posterior fossa syndrome, which can develop after having surgery to remove a brain tumor.

“I lost the ability to walk, talk, swallow or even lift my head up," she said. "I felt trapped in my own body, and I couldn’t even tell anyone if I was in pain."

Gradually through physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy, Sophie was able to get back these abilities.

"I couldn't talk for around two weeks and it took me around six weeks to learn how to walk again," she said.

Sophie has just finished her second year at university, studying psychology at De Montfort University, and hopes her story will help other young people.

"I've learned that I know more about what's wrong with me than someone else," she said. “So, I’d say to others, if you know something is wrong, go to your GP but keep pushing.”

Dr Shaarna Shanmugavadivel is a CCLG Child Cancer Smart Research Fellow at the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, and a paediatrician specializing in emergency medicine, and said: “Low-grade gliomas in children are slow growing and so symptoms can accumulate more slowly than with other brain tumours.

“The symptoms that they present with depends on where in the brain the tumour is growing, as with any other brain tumour, and the symptoms can be non-specific which can take some time to reach a diagnosis.

“As the tumour grows, there is more risk of brain injury including loss of vision and so it’s really important to diagnose as early as possible.“