A Sydney mum has had her dreams of becoming a teacher dashed after what seemed like mild head pain turned out to be a 7.4cm brain tumour. Ashley Hankin, 39, began experiencing a “squeezing” feeling in her head in early July.
The pain would last about 10 seconds and would come about very sporadically, Hankin’s sister Amy Hardie told 7NEWS.com.au.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today “(It was) like someone was squeezing her brain,” Hardie said. The mother-of-two was given a referral for a CT scan by her doctor, however put it off for quite some time until an overwhelming feeling told her to get it done. “She said something told her, ‘no, just go and get it’,” Hardie said.
Hankin’s gut feeling was right. Following her scan on July 29, doctors informed Hankin she had swelling in her brain. Soon after that they delivered the shocking news that she had a tumour.
At first she was told the tumour was only 1.8cm big but a further MRI confirmed it was in fact much larger. “They said it’s actually 7.
4cm. We were thinking, OK, a small tumour, you’ll be right, you know, it’s going to be fine,” Hardie said. “And then they’ve said it’s 7.
4cm, it’s really large. It’s pretty much taking up ..
. the frontal lobe.” Hardie said the news was extremely upsetting.
“You don’t expect to hear your sister get told that,” she said. Doctors told Hankin the tumour had likely been growing for several years and that they were shocked she hadn’t st.