Mother's instinct: Doctors thought boy had hay fever but it was a brain tumour
It was a case of mother's instinct for Rosie Bell whose son was diagnosed with a brain tumour, only after she pushed for doctors to do more tests.
When Daniel Bell, of northern England, was just three years old he began to bump into things and tumble, most of which Ms Bell put down to clumsiness.
When he became tired and his temper began to flare she put it down to a growth spurt or virus.
But when he became repeatedly sick, she remembered a friend's Facebook post about brain tumours.
On her first trip to the doctor, she presented her concerns.
The doctor believed it was hay fever and prescribed him antihistamines but the following days, Daniel didn't stop being sick.
It was when he was referred to a paediatrician that the family received the news that he had a brain tumour.
"It's probably been growing for days," the doctor explained to Ms Bell and her husband.
It had grown to the size of an adult fist.
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"Daniel was a typical mischievous three-year-old boy, always happy and a bundle of energy. When he became grumpy and started throwing tantrums, I put it down to him being a toddler," Ms Bell told the Mirror.
"Then Daniel also became lethargic. Shortly after getting up, he’d be lying on the settee and started having afternoon naps again.
"I thought he was growing or had picked up a virus like kids do.
"Looking back, he was always falling over or bumping into things. I joked that he’d inherited my clumsiness. Again, I didn’t dream there was anything sinister."
"My gut instinct told me Daniel had a brain tumour. But when I took him to the GP, I felt ridiculous putting my fear into words. She thought it may be hay fever as he’d been rubbing his eyes a lot and prescribed antihistamines."
After a nine-hour operation, doctors managed to remove the non-cancerous tumour.
"We veered between fear he wouldn’t make it through surgery and that, if he did, the Daniel who woke up wouldn’t be the boy we knew.
"At last we got the call to say he was in recovery. As we walked into the room, he was yelling at the top of his voice 'Get off me!' Relief flooded through me. 'That’s my cheeky, bossy boy!' I thought."
When the results came back, it showed his tumour was a grade one pilocytic astrocytoma.
"As I watch Daniel playing Star Wars light sabre battles with his sisters, he’s back to his usual boisterous self and we wouldn’t have it any other way," she said.
