Lucy Younger, 24, has told how her symptoms were blamed on anxiety, depression and ‘being a fresher’ by medics
A woman has told how her brain tumour symptoms were dismissed by doctors who put them down to her being a typical fresher and ‘drinking too much’.
Lucy Younger explained that her repeated pleas for further investigations to be conducted were brushed off by GPs who thought she was ‘just being a fresher’ and boozing excessively.
But it turned out that something a lot more sinister was going on – and the 24-year-old is now sharing her story in the hopes of highlighting the importance of ‘advocating for yourself’ when up against the health system.
Just before beginning her English degree at Goldsmiths, University of London in September 2018, Lucy began experiencing a series of strange symptoms.
She found herself routinely zoning out, experiencing déjà vu and having visual hallucinations, but suspected it might have just been down to her huge lifestyle change and partying with her uni pals just a bit too hard.
The student decided to cut back on the wild nights out, so decreased her alcohol consumption and stayed in a lot more.
But still, her symptoms persisted – and they started getting worse.
Lucy Younger was told by doctors that her symptoms were a result of her ‘drinking too much’ (SWNS)
Lucy’s hallucinations began to affect all of her senses, recalling how she could feel pins and needles in her face, taste metal and smell bacon. At the same time, she also began to become plagued by sharp headaches.
However, she claims doctors weren’t concerned when she raised her worries with them.
“Straight away, they were like – it’s anxiety,” Lucy recalled.
“I didn’t feel all that anxious, but I’d just done a big move from Newquay to London and was meeting lots of new people – so I thought, ‘I guess my brain’s just working overtime’.
“But I was still skeptical – I felt really happy with where my life was at that point. They said, ‘It’s a mixture of you being anxious and drinking too much’. They were making out I had an issue. It just got blamed on being a fresher.”
The trainee journalist, from Crystal Palace, London, then found herself struggling to concentrate during lectures.
Medics determined that all these issues were down to depression and panic attacks, so Lucy was prescribed with anxiety medication – putting her trust in her GP as she presumed ‘they know what they’re talking about’.
The 24-year-old was later diagnosed with a brain tumour (SWNS)
It didn’t work, though, and Lucy went back to the doctors once more – who then said her symptoms were hormonal and caused by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
“I just knew something wasn’t right,” the student said.
Things all then came to a head when Lucy returned home in March 2020 during her second year of university after the pandemic hit, as she suddenly started to experience seizures and would lose consciousness.
Describing the severity of her symptoms, she said: “I started getting migraines so bad the entire right side of my body would go numb.
“I thought, I’m either going into psychosis or I’ve got a tumour – it definitely wasn’t depression or anxiety.”
After putting all these red flags into Google, everything was pointing to the fact that she may have epilepsy or a brain tumour, but health practitioners still remained unconvinced.
Lucy added: “They said, ‘You’re too young’. ‘A girl like you wouldn’t have a brain tumour’.”
She managed to return to university to complete her studies in 2021 (SWNS)
After reaching her breaking point while suffering from hallucinations, the student rang a local pharmacist and cried down the phone to him about her health woes.
He ended up writing a letter to her GP, recommending they refer her for a CT scan as soon as possible.
“My pharmacist advocated for me – once he’d spoken to my GP, they arranged for me to have a CT scan,” Lucy said.
“I went in the July – and finally got my diagnosis of a benign brain tumour.”
Four months later, she underwent surgery to remove the tumour and was later able to return to university in 2021 to finish off her degree.
Lucy is now able to live a normal life, however, she is adapting to dealing with epilepsy and short term memory loss as a result of her brain tumour – but she wants to remind people that no one knows your body better than you.
“If there is something wrong you need to advocate for yourself,” she added. “I caught my brain tumour early.
“If I hadn’t there could have been a chance it wouldn’t have been removed and the ending would have been a different scenario. People think a brain tumour is a death sentence – it’s not always that way.”
Featured Image Credit: SWNS
