Brain tumour grew 'for more than a decade'

"I woke up eventually to what looked like two green aliens."

When Charlie Broadhurst went to bed early with a mild sickness bug and a tingling in his lip in January 2022 he was actually woken by paramedics in their green uniforms.

The married father-of-two from West Hanney had experienced a seizure and was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Charlie was referred to an epilepsy clinic, but unbeknown to everyone he had a brain tumour, and doctors had already missed it.

Previously Charlie had been experiencing headaches, but following an MRI scan in 2011 he was told it was a sinus infection, though he was advised to visit his optician.

"I kind of left it and when I did have a headache made sure I was wearing my glasses a little bit more," he tells the BBC.

After the seizure in 2022 he was booked in for another MRI.

"They were quite confident there was nothing to worry about, and then I got the phone call about six weeks later that there was something to worry about," he recalls.

Charlie was diagnosed with a grade II astrocytoma, a brain tumour that had been visible on a CT scan in 2011, and had grown undetected for more than a decade.

"The hospital were very quick and honest," Charlie explains.

"It was very small and they admitted straight away that they missed it."

But he said the doctors had since "been brilliant the whole way through".

Charlie has undergone brain surgery twice, and a good amount of the tumour has been successfully removed.

He also had six weeks of daily radiotherapy and six months of chemotherapy, which he describes as "really hard going."

He now has scans every six months to monitor the tumour.

Charlie's wife Siobhan says finding out about it was "terrifying".

But she says: "We very much got on with it... I think it has taken its toll on our children because for two years through the treatment life's a bit chaotic."

Siobhan has been taking part in fundraising ever since "because we need more awareness, more research, and ultimately more hope".

She is about to take part in the 88 Squats a Day in July challenge for Brain Tumour Research.

Katrina Jones, head of community and digital fundraising at the charity, said: "Stories like Charlie's highlight the urgent need for more research into brain tumours, which remain the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK."

"At the moment it's all positive stuff, the tumour's stable, but the type of tumour it is, at some point it won't be great news," Charlie says.

"But what we're doing is making the most of everything and focussing on those six-month scans, and doing anything the doctors tell me to do, and keeping my two boys happy, and doing everything we can with them."

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.