When Christine Tang went to the doctors after suffering symptoms similar to morning sickness, she was told she could be pregnant.
She was horrified when she learned she actually had a large tumour on her brain.
Doctors became puzzled at her condition – Christine had been vomiting every morning for an entire year and lost more than 12kgs. After going through countless pregnancy tests and scans, she was finally diagnosed with the cancer at 24 years old.
The now 26-year-old was on holiday in New York when she noticed she was feeling off. When Christine got home to London, she went to a GP who made her take a pregnancy test.
Telling The Sun: “I said, ‘I know I am not pregnant.’ It came back negative but I was still told to take another one.”
A few months later she had an ultrasound, an endoscopy and an MRI scan on her stomach and nothing showed. Two visits to the emergency department of her local hospital still failed to bring answers.
Almost a year later from when she first started feeling pain, Christine noticed she was losing her balance. Her GP ordered a full body scan and at last, a lump was found on the back of her head.
She was immediately rushed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London where surgery was performed on the 4cm-tumour.
Christine went through six weeks of daily radiotherapy and was prescribed steroids to help reduce the swelling of the tumour.
“I was trying to be upbeat and positive, but I was really scared,” she said. “I thought I would have the operation and then be fine afterwards, but two years after and I am still struggling.’
Christine now walks with a stick as her balance has been affected and she has double vision. She no longer drives and has had to give up her job in London as a production coordinator at an e-commerce company.
“My whole world has come crashing down and my life as I knew it has gone. Trying to stay positive has been really difficult,” she said.
Despite this, brave Christine has found support in Trekstock, a London-based charity that helps young adults living with cancer.
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