Waterford woman running her way to recover following brain tumour

A woman from Waterford who is recovering from a brain tumour operation is literally running her way back to recovery and in doing so is hoping to raise money for the hospital units who helped her.

Zoe Grattage, who is in her 30s, was diagnosed with a brain tumour on April 24, last year. 

Speaking to Waterford News & Star, Zoe, who is originally from the UK but has been living in Waterford since 2017, said she was shocked when she received the news.

"I can play that day back in my head as clear as day," she said.

"I was in state of shock," she said, as she recalled trying to process the news. Luckily, she has a strong family support unit around her and her partner, who is from Waterford.

"I suppose you are just forced to deal with the situation and you just get on with it," she said.

Zoe was diagnosed with a 3.6cm Accoustic Neuroma, and she was told the tumour was situated towards the centre of her head, compressing her brain stem.

She said she began to initially feel mild hearing loss in her right ear in late 2022 but didn't think too much of it at the time and put it down to spending a lot of time jumping into the sea.

However, early last year she began to get debilitating dizzy spells and with the two symptoms together she began to get concerned and went to her doctor.

"I went off to the doctor and it was a strange time because I would be relatively fit and healthy," she said.

The doctor did some sensory tests across her face and while she couldn't specifically find anything wrong the fact Zoe was presenting with two symptoms prompted the doctor to send her for further tests.

"She referred me to the ENT in Ardkeen hospital all within the space of two weeks and it all snowballed very fast," she said.

In the ENT department further tests were carried out and she was referred for MRI scans to Whitfield where she had a brain MRI done.

"I received a phone call that evening that I was being sent for a head, neck and spine MRI the following day," said Zoe.

"At that time I didn't know what they were doing was essentially checking to see if I had any other tumours that are associated with this type of tumour found in my head," she added.

"There is a genetic condition associated with these types of tumours and what happens is they essentially grow off any nerve cell in the body. So they were trying to automatically check for that and I didn't realise it at the time because at that stage I didn't even know I had the tumour but they had seen it from my first scan."

Once they had the results from the two scans Zoe was called in to UHW where she was told she had a brain tumour. 

"It was the size of a golf ball in the middle of my head," she said.

She was told she would need an operation because her tumour had grown to a large category.

"If they had done radiation it might have swelled and there was basically no more room in my head for that to happen," she said.

"I got the diagnosis in April and they wanted to operate in May but my parents were going to visit my brother in America in May and I wanted them to be here so I asked could we push it out to June," said Zoe.

"The surgeon said 'we can push it out to June' but we need to get this operation done as quickly as possible," she added.

She had the operation on June 16, last year. She went down to the operating theatre at 8am that morning and she woke up the following day at 2.30pm in Beaumount.

She received her immediate post-surgery care in Richmond ICU and then she went on to stay in the Adams McConnell neurology ward in Beaumount and it's for those two units that she decided to set up a GoFundMe campaign to give something back to those who helped her.

"The people who work in those wards are second to none and they are amazing people," she said.

"Some of things you witness you can't put into words and when you're in the situation you can be nothing but grateful," she added.

"The type of work they're doing is phenomenal."

Zoe is from a heavy sport background, having played competitive rugby and crossfit. However, she said running is a challenge and that's why she decided to do a 5k a Day challenge and to raise money that way for the two units.

The surgeons managed to remove 80 per cent of her tumour and the remaining 20 per cent will have to be monitored closely for the rest of Zoe's life to ensure that it doesn't start to grow again.

However, she is grateful to be alive and well enough to take on the challenge of running 5k a day, which will end this week.

She is extremely grateful for all the support she has received from within the local community in Waterford and further afield and to-date her campaign has raised €5,225.

However, any donation, no matter how small, is still very significant and anyone wishing to lend their support to Zoe in her fundraising drive for Beaumount Hospital can do so by going to the GoFundMe page and looking for the tab '5k a day for Beaumount ICU and the Adam’s McC Neurology Ward'.