Chester University student’s life saved after trip to opticians

May 5 2011 by Rachel Flint, Chester Chronicle

THE parents of a Chester university student who battled a brain tumour believe her life was saved by a simple eye test.

Since November, Hannah Egan of Crossland Terrace, Helsby, has endured extensive and painful treatments and investigations to fight a brain tumour which was gradually growing behind her eyes.

Now, despite taking months off from her studies to recover, the 21-year-old is determined to get her life back on track and graduate with her friends from the University of Chester.

Hannah’s mum Janet said she is ‘so grateful’ to the optician who discovered the tumour and helped to save her daughter’s life.

“If she hadn’t had the eye test, the tumour would have been life-threatening,” she said.

“She wasn’t feeling ill at the time. Sometimes she had headaches, but Hannah had a lot of work with university and her job. She was working all the time.

“She just thought she had got over-tired. We never imagined it would be something like this. The doctors said that the tumour had probably been growing there since she was born.

“It just shows how important these eye tests are. I cannot thank the optician enough.”

Janet said the whole family are extremely proud of Hannah who, just six months after her diagnosis, is determined to get her life back on track and fulfil her dream of becoming a primary school teacher.

“It has only been a few months and she has really tried to get things back to normal. I can’t believe it has happened after what she has gone through. She is so brave.”

Hannah was admitted to Warrington Hospital in November after an optician at Tesco in Warrington noticed a shadow during a standard eye test.

Hannah was then transferred to Walton Hospital where she underwent six hours of surgery to remove a benign tumour the size of a golf ball.

Her parents, Janet and Darren, battled through thick snow to visit their daughter who stayed in the hospital for three weeks, suffering from spells of dizziness and double vision.

“One of the worst moments was just one week before Christmas, when she had to be readmitted after fluid built up on her brain,” said Janet.

“She had a lumbar drain, where she had to have her head shaved from the nape of her neck and lie flat on her back for a week.”

While she was ill, Hannah received messages of support from her former classmates at Helsby High School and children she taught at Badger’s Barn Day Nursery painted her a giant picture.

And at Tesco in Helsby, where she has recently returned to her part-time job on the customer service desk, the department has been flooded with flowers and messages of support.

“So many people are so pleased to see her back, people have been bringing in flowers. One lady came into Tesco and gave her a big bouquet of flowers,” she said.

“It makes you realise how important everything is. We do take so many things for granted.”