Health: `Voices' that warned of tumour

A woman who heard voices telling her there was something wrong was later diagnosed with a brain tumour despite the scepticism of her GP.

The unnamed woman had first accepted counselling and medication fearing she was going mad, but when the voices returned after she had gone on holiday, she went back to her doctor and demanded a brain scan. He reluctantly agreed and was criticised by colleagues for accepting what his patient's hallucinatory voices were telling her - until the scan disclosed the tumour.

Writing in the British Medical Journal , the GP, Dr Ikechukwu Azuonye describes how the woman was operated on successfully and made a full recovery. On regaining consciousness, she heard voices for the last time when she claimed they told her: "We are pleased to have helped you. Goodbye."