Woman reveals how déjà vu led to a brain cancer diagnosis

‘My mind would go completely blank’

A woman has revealed how she discovered she had a brain tumour after experiencing voices in her head and episodes of déjà vu.

Alison Wheatley, a school counsellor, had “extraordinary sensations”, including “buzzing” sounds as the episodes became more frequent.

After being referred for an MRI scan, she was given the devastating news that she had a mass growing on her brain.

Wheatley, from Devon, said: “I was having these extraordinary sensations and my mind would go completely blank.

“Sometimes it would happen when I was in a session and although I could hear my client or colleague, and understand what they were saying, I couldn’t speak.

“I could only respond with a grunt and then tried to carry on as normal once it was over.”

The grandmother-of-four went to her GP a number of times over the course of two months complaining of the symptoms until July 2016, when she was referred to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for a scan.

“I was beside myself with fear and I couldn’t face looking at the image of the scan,” she said.

“All I could think about was my daughter Emily, who had already gone through the heartache of her dad’s cancer diagnosis, and now I was going to have to tell her that her mother had a brain tumour. My whole world went blank.”

Wheatley was diagnosed with a low-grade astrocytoma and underwent a craniotomy while awake at Derffirod Hospital in Plymouth in December 2016.

She went for a second operation in February 2021, which she was not awake for, after experiencing seizures that medication could not control.

Alison Wheatley with bandage on scar (Brain Tumour Research / SWNS)

But a follow-up scan and biopsy in April that year showed that the tumour had progressed to a grade three.

By July, Wheatley had undergone two more operations at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, as well as a second craniotomy while awake, and a third operation overall.

She found that she was unable to speak after the third surgery.

“I spent a day in intensive care and was sleeping lots. When I came round and was well enough to be moved to a ward, I tried to say words, [but] nothing would come out and I would weep,” Wheatley said.

“Even my text messages didn’t make sense and came out as a bunch of random words. It took a week for these skills to return.”

Grandson Harry Souttar, daughter Emily Souttar, son Lewis Wheatley and Oscar Souttar, Alison Wheatley and daughter in law Ruth Percival (Brain Tumour Research / SWNS)

Wheatley finished radiotherapy and chemotherapy in August and now has regular scans to monitor for re-growth.

However, she still struggles with finding the right words. But having a job where she has to speak everyday “has acted almost like a form of rehab”, Wheatley added.

“Being open with clients and colleagues has helped me accept my diagnosis and I feel confident in my ability to continue to support people [as a counselor’,” she said.

Her daughter-in-law, Ruth Percival, along with 13 of her colleagues from Morgan McKinley Recruitment, will take on a three-day walking challenge across 155km of the west highlands in Scotland to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.

Wheatley said she was “touched” that Percival was taking on the challenge, and added: “My hope is that by sharing my story of living with a brain tumour, I can demonstrate that life doesn’t stop when you are given news as devastating as a mass growing on your brain.

“You are capable of anything that you put your mind to.”

Additional reporting by SWNS