A pregnant mum who attended an Edinburgh hospital with severe headaches was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Bethany Wright, 26, has always struggled with headaches and in March 2024 she visited the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh under the impression she may have pre-eclampsia – a pregnancy complication that causes high blood pressure.
However, Bethany received a devastating brain tumour diagnosis after a CT scan showed a mass on her brain. Bethany was 34 weeks pregnant when she received the news and is now making a ‘memory box’ for her nine-month-old son in case she is not around to see him grow up.
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A further MRI scan confirmed Bethany had a 6cm brain tumour and doctors explained she would need an operation to remove it.
However, she was told she couldn’t have the procedure while pregnant. Bethany eventually delivered her son Alfie in Edinburgh on March 28 before undergoing surgery to remove the tumour in August 2024.
Doctors were able to remove 85 per cent of the tumour and after sending it for a biopsy confirmed the mum had a grade three astrocytoma – a fast-growing, aggressive tumour in the central nervous system.
Bethany then underwent 33 gruelling sessions of radiotherapy and is now receiving chemotherapy. The Glasgow-based mum says she feels “robbed” of motherhood and has started collecting items to make a memory box for little Alfie.
A further MRI scan confirmed Bethany had a 6cm brain tumour and doctors explained she would need an operation to remove it.
(Image: SWNS)
The community nurse said: “When they told me it was grade 3, I didn’t how to process it – I was wondering if I would have a shorter life span.
“I had just had a newborn son, I was trying to work out the future. My main thought was that I was not going to be able to be there for my son growing up which is heartbreaking. I am 26, I am still young.”
When Bethany attended hospital in Edinburgh she told doctors how she was experiencing headaches and her blood pressure was high.
She continued: “They then did a CT scan as they thought I might have a clot in my brain and then someone from neurology came in and told me they spotted a mass on my brain.”
Bethany was taken for an MRI scan which confirmed she had a brain tumour but, because she was 34 weeks pregnant, doctors said she’d have to go full-term before they operated.
She said: “It was such a weird time because I felt as if I had all the exciting moments of the end of the pregnancy taken away from me. I felt like there was a negative energy around the pregnancy, nobody was able to focus on the fact I was having my first child. Everyone was just so upset.”
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Bethany then underwent surgery on August 19, 2024, at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to remove the tumour.
Bethany said: “After the operation, the tumour was sent for a biopsy. The results came back and said I had a grade three astrocytoma – I was devastated. I was told I could have three years to 10 years to live – it was hard to get my head around.”
In September 2024, Bethany started 33 rounds of radiotherapy and is currently undergoing 12 rounds of chemotherapy. Bethany said: “I struggled with chemo, I was vomiting a lot, I wasn’t able to eat and I couldn’t keep anything down. I felt like I wasn’t able to do day-to-day activities which I struggled with as a new mum.
“It has been hard, I don’t think I could have done it without my partner, Cameron, 28, and my mum, Lorraine, 62, who moved in with us – so I can put my health first.”
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Bethany has started a memory box, which she plans to fill with letters and a voice recording for her son Alfie to listen to. She said: “It has been super tricky, I feel like I have missed out on a lot as a mum, a lot of first-time mums go to classes with their babies and meet other mums.
“They are having the best time and I am not able to have that. If I think too deeply into leaving Alfie behind it makes me really upset so when I am with him I try to block it out of my mind. I have a memory box where I can write letters, there is a voice recorder in there too.
“I have started putting things into it but that in itself is a hard thing to do.”