A Scots woman detailed the harrowing loss her family has experienced with four members dying from aggressive brain tumours in 16 years.Claire Cordiner, from Gilmerton, Edinburgh, lost her mother, younger sister, her nephew and her cousin to cancer, reports Edinburgh Live.
The residential care officer hopes by opening up on her family’s devastating losses she will be able to raise awareness around brain tumours - which kill more people under the age of 40 than any other cancer.Claire’s mum, Margaret O’Kane, from Wishaw, died when she was 67 in 2008 from a brain tumour.
This was followed by her sister Angie Jones, 36, from East Kilbride, in 2009; Angie’s son Max, 19, also died from a brain tumour in 2023 and her cousin David McCulloch, 56, was the latest to die last year from a brain tumour.“My mum had 12 children and she adored kids.
Family was her life. My mum’s speech started to go a bit and the GP initially thought it had been a mini stroke and they said they would keep an eye on it,” Claire said. “But within a matter of weeks she became incoherent and my dad took her to hospital.“Thankfully she was offered a scan right away where they discovered two tumours, one at the front of her brain and the other at the base.“She was offered radiotherapy but at a reduced dose due to her age and later underwent surgery to remove as much as they could from the front tumour but they could not touch the base.“Doctors told her she had less than a year, which was devastating but she just accepted it.