I thought people were speaking a different language - but was told I had brain tumour after blinking unevenly

A nurse was diagnosed with a brain tumour which made her think people were speaking a different language.

Lucy Woodhouse, 43, says she experienced severe headaches and struggled to read aloud. In a meeting with colleagues, the mum-of-three found herself unable to understand what they were saying, with tests revealing she had a golf ball-sized tumour earlier this year.

Lucy believes the meningioma tumour is linked to the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection, rounds of IVF she had and HRT medication - all of which contain the hormone progesterone. Meningiomas, the most common type of brain tumour, are a mostly non-cancerous brain tumour and are nearly twice as common in females as males.

In May, Lucy underwent surgery to remove the tumour – which was growing just three millimetres from her optic nerve and could have caused her to go blind. She says she is recovering well but still struggles with her memory at times. 

Lucy said: “I was sitting in a senior meeting at work and I just felt like I didn’t understand anything anyone was saying. I thought they were speaking a different language. One night I was reading a story to my five-year-old and I could read the words but I couldn’t say them, something was going wrong between my eyes and mouth.

“If you’re having headaches you don’t normally get with an unusual presentation, you need to get it checked out.”