Mum's 'whirlwind' as St Neots girl, 5, gets tumour diagnosis 12 hours after eye test
She's now trying to raise awareness for other families
The mum of a five-year-old girl from St Neots diagnosed with a brain tumour just 12 hours after an eye test said she's still getting over what happened.
In February, Phoebe started to feel severe headaches and sickness and was seen by a GP who told her she was having migraines.
Then in May, Phoebe's mum Katie Nicholls booked her daughter in for an eye test.
“On our way home from the appointment, the optician called to say that, after speaking to his senior, we should go straight to the accident and emergency (A&E) department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge," Katie said.
“After they did a CT scan, I was told that Phoebe had a brain tumour; I fell apart and just sobbed and sobbed.
"We've been told if we hadn't (had) the eye test, she could've gone on to start having seizures so I feel incredibly grateful that the optician picked up on what it was and acted so fast."
At hospital, Phoebe was found to have a pilocytic astrocytoma, a fairly rare type of brain tumour which mainly affects children and young adults.
After the scan, Phoebe had a drain inserted to relieve the pressure on her brain caused by a build up of fluid known as hydrocephalus.
She's now had most of the tumour removed after a 10-hour operation.
"It was an absolute whirlwind and took a lot of time to process it all, but now you process it and hits you hard some days but overall, we feel extremely lucky," Katie said.
"We sat in A&E thinking we're wasting people's time as she was running around playing in the waiting room like there's nothing wrong with her.
"If the optician hadn't been so confident we needed to go to A&E there and then, we don't know what could have happened."
Scientists at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the University of Plymouth are looking into what causes glioma tumours like pilocytic astrocytoma to start growing.
They're also trying to find out what happens inside cells before a tumour begins, which could lead to more effective treatments.
Phoebe - a keen dancer - is planning to go back to school full time next month and is due to go back to hospital for an MRI scan later this year.
Katie completed 88 squats a day in July to raise money for Brain Tumour Research and awareness into the disease.
"I don't think you necessarily would think the first thing to do if your child has a headache would be to get their eyes checked," she added.
"I'm trying to spread as much awareness with charity as well as for funding because it is an underfunded cancer."