A woman who claims her brain tumour was misdiagnosed as vertigo was sadly told it has started growing again after a decade of being dormant.
Ellen Yates, from Illogan, broke down “sobbing” in the shower when she was first told that doctors at the Royal Cornwall Hospital had spotted an acoustic neuroma on her MRI scan.
The mass, albeit ‘low-grade’, sits on a nerve that controls her balance and can cause her whole right side to seize up.
Sometimes, Ellen’s husband, Kev, has to help her with basic tasks such as getting to the bathroom or rolling out of bed.
She initially started experiencing symptoms in December 2014 – suffering from dizzy spells and feeling as if she was “drunk”– but was told the tumour was stable.
But just a few months ago, in June 2025, the mass was found to be growing after 10 years of little to no change.
“It’s easy to imagine that low-grade tumours aren’t that serious, but it’s impacted my life so much in so many different ways,” said the 68-year-old.
“At the beginning, I thought benign meant pink and fluffy, but I was very wrong.
“A benign tumour in your head is not the same as having a benign tumour elsewhere.
“My tumour is on the nerve that controls my balance, so I now fall over easily and have to walk with a stick.
“My whole right side can seize up.
“Sometimes, my dear husband, Kev, has to help me on and off the toilet and roll me out of bed.
“I remember going to bed fine on 29 December 2014, but then waking up the next day feeling strange, almost like I was drunk.
“I was staggering across the landing, half of my mouth had drooped, and I could barely stand.
“I thought I was having a stroke.
The doctors told me I had an ear infection; I was given the Epley manoeuvre, where you turn your head in a variety of movements to clear the vertigo.
“This didn’t do anything and only ended up giving me sciatica; the whole thing was a complete mess.
“I had to take sleeping tablets to get through the pain.”
By February 2015, Ellen’s hearing had gotten worse, and so she went back to her doctor for answers.
She said: “In March, I was finally sent for a scan, and it took another month to find out my results.
“I was told I had a low-grade acoustic neuroma.
I remember collapsing in the shower, sobbing.
“I had something in my head that should not be there, and I just wanted it out.
“They didn’t want to risk radiotherapy as there was no guarantee it would make anything better and might make it worse.”
During the past decade, Ellen also suffered a huge personal loss when her best friend and “soul sister” Dawn Rogers Parkyn died of the disease in 2021.
As a way of coping with her grief, she decided to dedicate her life to helping others, which she does even now, as doctors continue to monitor the mass.
Ellen said: “[Dawn and I] met when we were four years old in a convent in Penzance.
“She was such a big support to me when I was diagnosed, but she never told me or her family when she herself had been diagnosed with glioblastoma.
“We’ll never know why she kept it from us.
“So many people have symptoms of brain tumours and don’t know they have one.
“Just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002, I just don’t get why.
“Brain tumours and brain cancer seem to be dirty words that get swept under the carpet.
“I’ll stand up and shout about it from the rooftops; more funding is needed if we are to find a cure!”
Ellen is joining Brain Tumour Research’s Walk of Hope at Torpoint in September, as reported by Need To Know.
She added, “Having a brain tumour has changed my life, but it’s given me a chance to smell the roses in a way.
“I was always running around at 100mph; now I know to appreciate every moment.”
