'The therapy is for brain tumours and I have a brain tumour, but I can't have it'

A YOUNG paramedic says she is being denied NHS funding for a specialist brain tumour therapy that could prevent her having to undergo a second operation.

- By SUE KIRBY

Despite her consultants at James Cook University Hospital recommending Hannah Lemanski have gamma knife radiotherapy, she was refused because her type of tumour is not on the NHS England approved list, the 24-year-old told The Gazette.

Hannah says her consultant has applied for individual funding for her case, but she has already waited two months for a decision and says she cannot wait any longer.

The Middlesbrough woman now plans to fund the treatment herself, which will cost upward of £15,000.

The newlywed, from Acklam, has already undergone one brain surgery and fears that waiting much longer will result in her having to have another because the tumour has grown too big for the gamma knife radiotherapy to work.

In 2023, after repeated visits to her GP with headaches, vomiting and blurred vision, Hannah was finally diagnosed with a central neurocytoma - a rare intercranial brain tumour.

She underwent surgery in the May of that year and medics successfully removed around 80% of the benign tumour. However, a scan in February this year showed the tumour was showing signs of regrowing.