'Meeting them and other young people with cancer changed me for the better'

LAUREN HOPES THAT SHARING HER EXPERIENCE WILL RAISE AWARENESS OF THE SPECIALIST SUPPORT THE TEENAGE CANCER TRUST OFFERS

- By ABIGAIL NICHOLSON

A TEENAGER knew something was seriously wrong with her when she felt a ‘weird’ pain in her lower back.

Lauren Taylor, from Middlesbrough, was 15 when she felt the pain in September 2020.

Although she was a keen tennis player, Lauren had not tripped or felt like she had pulled a muscle. Her GP referred her for an X-ray but Lauren's symptoms worsened very quickly.

Lauren said: “My back pain escalated, my left foot dropped, and I was struggling to remember really simple things from school. I also felt that I needed the toilet but struggled to urinate.

“I had an MRI scan at the local hospital which revealed a tumour in my spine. My family and I were in total shock.”

After being transferred to Newcastle’s Great North Children’s Hospital, a further scan revealed Lauren had a tumour in her brain, and one at the top, middle and bottom of her spine, which were blocking her body's “information transmitters” and causing the memory lapses.

Lauren started chemotherapy immediately, but the treatment swelled the tumour. Emergency surgery removed 70% of it but left her paralysed from the belly button down.

Lauren said: “I have never felt so much pain after coming around from the operation. At first, morphine wasn't even helping. After that I was bedbound in hospital for six months.

“I couldn't turn over in bed or go to the toilet by myself. I wasn’t eating well, and lost my hair as well as lots of weight. It was awful, and because the chemo wasn’t working I had to be transferred by ambulance to the Freeman Hospital for radiotherapy.”

Lauren was told that her paralysis was likely to be permanent, but after four months of physiotherapy and positive thinking, something magical happened.

Lauren said: “One day dad was sat with me, and a cuddly toy on my duvet at the end of the bed moved. I asked my dad to pull the cover off and was amazed to see I could wiggle my big toe.