A “vile pink drink” enabled a mum to remain brain tumour-free for a year.
Catherine Boyle, 39, was given the revolutionary potion before her surgery which caused her brain tumour to “light up”, allowing her surgeon to remove more of it than would normally have been possible.
Catherine, from East Kilbride, had been having headaches and, in agony, went to Hairmyres Hospital in April 2019.
After a brain scan, she was shocked to learn her growing confusion and headaches were caused by the most aggressive type of nervous system tumour, a grade 4 astrocytoma.
Catherine was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Before surgery, Catherine was told that she would be given a “pink drink” two hours before her operation.
The coloured liquid is 5-ALA (5-Aminolevulinic Acid), which causes brain tumour cells to glow bright pink under UV light.
It has had excellent results in brain tumour surgeries.
The whole tumour is successfully removed in 70.5 per cent of cases when the 5-ALA is used, compared with 30 per cent without it.
Catherine said: “It tastes vile.
"I wasn’t aware that not everyone got to take the pink drink as part of their surgeries until my brother did some research into it.
"I realised then how lucky I was to have been given it.”
Scotland was the first UK country to approve the surgical aid but not all neurosurgical centres use it.
A spokesman for The Brain Tumour Charity said: “We continue to campaign for it to be made available for everyone.”
Unfortunately tumours have regrown in three areas of Catherine’s brain but they are currently too small to operate on.
She added: “I do believe the pink drink helped to give me over a year tumour-free.”
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