Peter's Story

I had a brain tumour.

They say they got it all.

It was malignant.

I am now undergoing radiotherapy each weekday to kill the remaining cells.

I am 25.

I had headaches which I'd seen my GP in the middle of 2008 about. She sent me off for a CT scan and the tumour was there but no one saw it on the scan.

On 23 March, I had a headache and nausea so I caught a cab to the Emergency Department of The Canberra Hospital. I had a spinal tap that day and immediately the headache was gone.

I stayed in hospital, in a special ward where they knew something was wrong but didn't know what it was. Three days later I was told there was a 'mass' on my brain and I needed brain surgery immediately. I had to ring my parents, it was the most gut-wrenching thing I have ever had to do and it is something I wish I could take back. I took my teddy bear into surgery and they opened my skull to remove the tumour. Seven hours later I woke up with a tube down my throat and in the intensive care unit unable to move and being reminded how to breath. I couldn't leave until I was breathing on my own again. There was nothing else to focus on so I did just as the nurses said and breathed.

A day later I was back in the recovery ward with other patients learning to walk and talk again. Two months on and my scar is healing, I can talk just fine and even though a little bit of my face remains numb I can live with that and it still has plenty of time to heal. Nerves are fragile things.

Soon I was told the pathology was not positive. It was cancer and the tumour was graded at a four - the worst it could be. It was rare to be so close to my cerebellum in someone my age. Over weeks that pathology changed and they have since downgraded the tumour to a three. I am not in the clear but I have much more hope for recovery.

As for now the treatment continues and I will keep taking my chemo tablets each morning and keep praying.