ANTIQUES Roadshow star Theo Burrell has revealed how she was “too shocked to cry” when doctors said her brain tumour would kill her.
Theo was 35 and had just returned to work after giving birth to son Jonah when she started having intense headaches.
Over six months, she visited her GP a number of times as well as out-of-hours clinics due to the near constant pain she was in, coupled with exhaustion so intense she could barely get out of bed some days.
Having been prescribed analgesic drugs and then steroids which didn’t work, Theo finally headed to hospital in Edinburgh with her mum in June last year.
While husband Alex looked after their son, Theo had a CT scan and her worst fears were confirmed when the doctor told her it was a brain tumour.
Theo was reassured that the 5cm tumour had the potential to be removed, but the following day a consultant neurosurgeon told her it was a glioblastoma.
In an interview with MailOnline, Theo recalled: “He said there are 130 types of brain tumour, and this is the deadliest, and he could tell, I don’t know how, just from looking at my scan.
“He said, ‘It’s cancer and it’s really aggressive. This is the reality of the situation. We’ll take out as much as we can but it will come back. It’s incurable and the average life expectancy is 12-18 months.'”
Blinking back tears, she continued: “I didn’t cry at the time — I was too shocked — as it began to sink in that this was going to kill me.
“My mind automatically scanned for the things I would miss: getting old with Alex, seeing our son, then just 20 months, grow up, spending time with my parents, my brother, my friends…”
Theo had surgery just six days after her diagnosis and a fortnight later, she had six weeks of radiotherapy, followed by six months of chemotherapy in a daily pill form.
She said: “There is still some tumour left as it’s extremely rare for all the cancer cells to be fully removed, because of the risk of harming healthy brain cells, but radiotherapy and chemotherapy helped to shrink it some more.”
The Antiques Roadshow star told her doctor she doesn’t want to know how long she has left, but is fully aware it’s a terminal, incurable disease.
She said: “The average life expectancy for my type of tumour is 12 to 18 months, so, by those reckonings, I would only have a couple of weeks left. But, according to the scans, things are looking OK for me at the moment.”
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common, malignant brain tumour diagnosed in adults.
It develops from glial cells, which are found in the brain and spinal cord and unfortunately, there is no known cause.
Treatment predominantly involves surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Sadly, Glioblastomas always grow back.
It means Theo was able to celebrate Jonah’s third birthday last month, and despite the prognosis, she has been able to find some positives.
She explained: “I used to worry a lot about how I’d cope with a serious illness and when I got this diagnosis it almost freed me from that. I just had to get on with it.
“While I obviously wish I didn’t have a terminal illness, it’s liberating in lots of ways.
“I just don’t worry about the same small things any more and now live day to day, appreciating what’s happening, instead of always planning and looking to the future.
“I have a healthy son, a loving partner, a great family and friends, and what I actually want is to spend as much time as I can with them, doing everyday things.”
For more information please visit braintumourresearch.org
