Scots teen was 'days from death' after bloated stomach led medics to rare brain tumour diagnosis

A brave Scots teenager has told how a rare brain tumour - discovered after it caused her stomach to bloat - left her "days from death".Alex Arkell was just 16-years-old when her world was turned upside down by the shock diagnosis.Alex, now 19, was diagnosed with a follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) secreting brain tumour - which can cause vision problems, headaches, and other symptoms.Alex, from Cowie, Stirling, was told by surgeons that she was "a week from death".

Just two days later, she underwent emergency brain surgery to try and remove the tumour.She was then told that surgeons had been unable to completely remove the growth and that she would have to undergo yet another procedure eventually.The retail worker went on to lose the peripheral vision in her left eye.A year later, the former Cowie Primary pupil went under the knife again and was told within months that she would be sent to Manchester to undergo five weeks of pro-ton beam radiotherapy - a type of radiotherapy that uses a beam of high energy protons, which are small parts of atoms, rather than high energy x-rays, to treat highly specific types of cancer.At the time of Alex's shock diagnosis there was believed to be only 20 other people in the world also battling the condition.The tumour caused Alex's ovaries to enlarge, from 1cm to 13cm, causing her stomach to bloat so much that she was the equivalent of being 24-weeks pregnant.

Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area. The former Bannockburn High pupil said: "I had no other symptoms apart from experiencing a bloated stomach.

This led me to visit my GP who took blood tests. Initially they thought I had some food intolerances. "After a second visit, another GP sent me straight to the