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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
World
Ryan Paton

Mum 'ready to plan funeral' as toothache turns out to be devastating disease

A mum said she was "ready to plan her funeral" after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Emma Webster went to the dentist in April 2018 with excruciating pain in her tooth. The 29-year-old was awaiting root canal surgery and was rushed through to see if that was what was causing her pain.

However, doctors thought she was experiencing neuralgia, a stabbing pain due to an irritated or damaged nerve, when the pain didn't go away after six months. However, she was referred to the neurology department at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, when she was still struggling with numbness on the top her mouth, pain and blurred vision.

READ MORE: Drivers could be hit with £1,000 fine for taking their car off the road

Emma was rocked when an MRI scan in January 2019 revealed she had a brain tumour behind her right eye in January 2019. She said: "When I found out It didn’t sink in at all.

“I even went back to work, but later that day when I was on the phone I broke down. I kept thinking ‘why me? What have I done wrong?’"

Emma is an administrator from Airdrie and said she was worried about her son, Alfie, seven, after receiving the news. She added: "I could only think of Alfie and what would happen to him if he lost his mum.

“I was ready to start planning my funeral." She added: "Brain tumours run in my family.

“My nana, Alice Travers, was just 55 when she died from a brain tumour in February 2001. My parents were so worried that the same thing would happen to me.”

Emma Webster and her son, Alfie (Emma Webster / SWNS)

In March 2019, Emma had an operation to remove 70% of the benign tumour and moved back with her parents with her fiancé Kieran McGurk, 31, and Alfie. Emma struggled with headaches and problems with balance for the next eight months before the medication finally started to make her feel better.

Emma has yearly scans to check the growth of the tumour, and is expecting a second child in October 2022. She said: "I can’t believe I’ve now got to the stage I am not always having to be at the hospital but instead we bought our new home, I am getting married in two years, and I’m expecting my second child in eight weeks. I never thought that would be the case back in 2019.”

She added: "I really wouldn’t have got through the last three years without such supportive family and friends. Kieran and Alfie have been beyond amazing. They still amaze me to this day with how strong they have been while standing by my side.”

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