A grieving mum has paid tribute to her “full of fun” daughter who died following brain surgery.
Teenager Ellie Watts, from Dartford, was diagnosed with a grade 1 astrocytoma and found to be suffering from hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in the brain.
The 19-year-old, who was studying criminology and criminal justice at the University of Greenwich, underwent surgery in August 2022.
After remaining stable for 14 months, Ellie showed further signs of hydrocephalus.
She suffered a cardiac arrest and despite being revived and undergoing further surgery, the teenager died in October.
“Ellie was pretty special,” said mum Catherine Walk, a watch manager at the London Ambulance Service’s emergency operations centre.
“She was full of fun and just the most amazing person to be around. She cared about everybody and was really kind.
“Her death is a massive loss but she will live on, not just in those people to whom she donated organs but in all those who knew and loved her.”
Around 1/3 of brain tumours diagnosed in the UK are astrocytomas. It is often treated by neurosurgery followed by radiotherapy and sometimes chemotherapy.
Catherine first noticed symptoms back in August 2021, when she took Ellie for a final dress fitting ahead of her wedding.
“She was almost swaying and said she felt a bit unsteady and had been getting dizzy,” the 47-year-old explained.
“When this was still going on in October, I told her to go see the doctor to get checked out.
“She had some blood tests, which came back normal and was asked to return to get her B12 level tested, which also came back fine.
“We made another appointment in January to discuss what was next and were told she was probably deficient in vitamin D.
“She was told to take an antihistamine to help with her dizziness and to drink more water.”
This seemed to work, however in April Ellie began experiencing nausea and vomiting. At first Catherine believed it was something she’d had to eat or drink.
“By the time she turned 18 in May, Ellie had a part-time job at John Lewis, Bluewater, but she’d had to take a couple of days off,” the mum said.
“She was full of fun and just the most amazing person to be around...”
“The vomiting, which seemed to come out of nowhere, had continued and Ellie said she’d also had a couple of headaches, although I suspect she’d had more. I also sometimes noticed she had sweat on her top lip.
“We managed to get an appointment with our practice nurse in June.
“She did lots of tests and sent Ellie for an MRI scan to rule out a few things, which took place in August 2022 and found an abnormality.”
Ellie had most of her tumour removed during surgery and remained stable until October this year, when Catherine became concerned she had again developed hydrocephalus.
She rushed her to A&E where she continued to deteriorate and had to be given CPR. The teenager was transferred to a specialist neuro hospital for surgery but sadly did not survive.
“We were told Ellie’s brain hadn’t responded to surgery how they would have liked but they would monitor her and see what happened in critical care,” Catherine explained.
“A scan the following morning revealed her brain stem had been pushed into her spine.
“We were told the damage was catastrophic and the only thing keeping her alive was her life-support. She was on the donor list, so kept alive until the following day.”
The pair used to attend bootcamp exercise classes together and Ellie had been keen for her mum to do Tough Mudder.
“We were told the damage was catastrophic and the only thing keeping her alive was her life-support.”
In her memory, Catherine is currently training to run the Norfolk Marathon in aid of Brain Tumour Research on Sunday, April 28.
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“I’ve never run more than a 10k but I thought training for a marathon would give me something to focus on because I do miss Ellie terribly,” the mum added.
“She was a positive person, however, and I know I need to try and carry that forward.”
