Photo credit: PA Real Life. Pictured: Christine - in Paris. She felt really weak & couldn't walk anywhere. Usage: ANY publication (print, online, broadcast) of this image will incur a fee. Contact PA Real Life Online Editor Anna Roberts on +44 (0) 2079637218. Story: Christine Tam was told she could be pregnant after suffering morning sickness & was horrified to discover she actually had brain cancer.
Christine Tang was told she could be pregnant after suffering morning sickness & was horrified to discover she actually had brain cancer (Picture: PA)

When this graduate started suffering what seemed like morning sickness, doctors initially believed she was pregnant.

But Christine Tang was horrified to discover soon afterwards that she actually had brain cancer.

Christine, now 26, was told she had a satsuma-sized brain tumour after vomiting every morning for a year.

She lost almost two stone and dropped to a size four while doctors were left puzzled over her condition.

Christine, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, did pregnancy tests and underwent countless scans before being diagnosed with the disease aged just 24.

The former production coordinator at a London-based e-commerce company had been on holiday in New York in October 2012 when she started feeling sick and lost her appetite.

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Photo credit: PA Real Life. Pictured: Christine - Sept 2013 in hsopital after shunt surgery. Usage: ANY publication (print, online, broadcast) of this image will incur a fee. Contact PA Real Life Online Editor Anna Roberts on +44 (0) 2079637218. Story: Christine Tam was told she could be pregnant after suffering morning sickness & was horrified to discover she actually had brain cancer.
Christine in hsopital after the surgery (picture: PA)

‘My friend and I had planned to go out for dinner and go out, but I didn’t want to eat anything and just felt like going back to the hotel,’ she said. ‘When I got home I went to the GP and they made me take a pregnancy test because I was always being sick in the morning.

‘I said, “I know I am not pregnant.” It came back negative, but I was still told to take another one.’

Loughborough University graduate Miss Tang was prescribed medication to help with what was thought to be an acidic stomach – but still the sickness continued.

In February 2013, she was sent for an ultrasound at Hemel Hempstead Hospital and six months later an endoscopy, but still nothing showed.

Feeling dreadful and a year on from suffering the initial symptoms, an MRI on her stomach also drew a blank.

She visited the accident and emergency department of her local hospital twice, but to no avail.

 

Photo credit: PA Real Life. Pictured: Christine - after treatment, trying to return to normal. Usage: ANY publication (print, online, broadcast) of this image will incur a fee. Contact PA Real Life Online Editor Anna Roberts on +44 (0) 2079637218. Story: Christine Tam was told she could be pregnant after suffering morning sickness & was horrified to discover she actually had brain cancer.
Christine after treatment, trying to return to normal (Picture: PA)

But by mid-September 2013 Miss Tang started to lose her balance and her GP sent ordered another body scan at Watford Hospital.

Finally, a lump was found on the back of her head and the same day she was rushed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

There medics found a 4cm tumour and shunt surgery, a second operation to remove the tumour and six weeks of daily radiotherapy followed.

She was even prescribed steroids to help reduce the swelling of the tumour, but Miss Tang then gained weight, feeling even more unlike herself.

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‘I was trying to be upbeat and positive, but I was really scared,’ she said. ‘But I thought I would have the operation and then be fine afterwards, but two years after and I am still struggling.’

Since the diagnosis, Miss Tang has been forced to give up her London job and put her dreams of working in Hong Kong, where her parents are from, on hold.

She can no longer drive and feels behind her friends who are climbing the career ladder and getting engaged.

‘My life has completely changed. Because my tumour was attached to my brainstem, I have been left with side effects. My balance is not the same and I have to walk with a stick. That means no heels for me and I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol in nearly two years. And to top it all off I have double vision.

‘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 she has found strength and support in Trekstock, a London-based charity which supports young adults living with cancer.