I forgot a year of my life — now I’m just grateful to be alive

As Max Wrathall chatted to friends successful the gym car park, she was looking guardant to a well-deserved coffee.

The 43-year-old mum was ever busy, taking attraction of her kids and the location alongside moving her ain palmy business.

So arsenic Max, from Swindon, sat successful her van, she enjoyed the abbreviated interruption with her friends – that is, until everything went black.

Slumped successful the beforehand seat, she abruptly had a seizure, the archetypal 1 successful her life.

It would acceptable disconnected a terrifying concatenation of events that resulted successful a five-hour agelong country to region a encephalon tumour.

Max, who runs a assemblage café, Jubilee Café, had antecedently been successful bully health, and would bid astir days, doing spin, value and HIIT classes.

Recently divorced, erstwhile she wasn’t moving oregon exercising, she would walk clip with her daughters, Frankie, past 13 and Georgie, 11, taking them to signifier their hobbies oregon going connected camping trips. She’d besides precocious signed up to bash a British Sign Language qualification, and worked a 2nd occupation supporting deaf children during the wintertime erstwhile her café was closed.

But it was aft a rotation people successful November 2022, erstwhile Max was having a java with her friends, Jody Johnson, Kelly Ohrland, and Kirsty Smith, that she abruptly had a seizure.

She said: ‘Jody caught maine portion I was fitting and tried to enactment maine successful the betterment position, portion Kirsty called for an ambulance.

‘I woke up successful the ambulance to radical calling my name. I didn’t cognize however I’d got there, with nary representation of the seizure itself. I’d bedewed myself and felt sick and disorientated, exhausted, but perfectly fine, and grateful to beryllium looked after.’

As this had ne'er happened before, Max was scanned astatine infirmary earlier being sent location to retrieve with anti-seizure medications.

‘I moved backmost successful with my ex-husband, Paul, arsenic my friends felt I shouldn’t beryllium connected my ain with the children,’ Max explains. ‘But I don’t retrieve moving house.

‘I retrieve having headaches, feeling retired of it, being a spot bit irritable, and precise tired. Eventually, I called 111 and they told maine to spell to A&E.’

What followed was a bid of tests and scans, until finally, Max received a shocking diagnosis.

She recalls: ‘I conscionable knew thing wasn’t right. The doc called maine into a country with Paul. He checked my eyes and reflexes, and asked however I felt, to which I replied that I felt fine.

‘Then helium said: “I’m acrophobic you person a ample wide connected your brain.” He said they thought it was a tumour.

‘I was precise detached from it all. I retrieve being precise bushed from the medicine and not having overmuch consciousness of what was going on.

‘But I felt fine, calm and looked after, similar the NHS had it each nether control.’

Max refused to Google thing astir encephalon tumours, though she aboriginal recovered retired that lone astir 50% of radical with encephalon tumours survive. Even still, the lead-up to her surgery, successful December 2022, was hard.

‘I couldn’t sleep, my caput was whirring constantly,’ she says.

‘I had to organise my location for the children, and I wanted to marque definite Paul knew wherever everything was. I wrote them each letters. I organised their clothes. When I couldn’t slumber I was up each nighttime sorting retired their crafts and toys and making amusive things for them to find astir the house.

‘I wrote tons of journals and tried to talk to friends each day. It was besides Christmas time, and I was determined to marque a Christmas barroom earlier I went into surgery. My person Jo came astir to assistance maine decorate it – I don’t retrieve what I enactment successful it, oregon if anyone ate it, but she knew it was important to maine and helped maine marque it look beautiful.’

Paul and Max’s mum, Jan, looked aft her daughters, portion Kelly rounded up a squad to enactment their person circular the clock.

‘Staying affirmative and trying to find ways to laughter helped get maine done and we called ourselves the “humour earlier tumour team”,’ says Max.

‘My friends would FaceTime maine astir regular – they’d nonstop maine daft presents and we’d conscionable laugh. I made a person done my BSL people who would conscionable substance maine astatine random times successful the nighttime erstwhile nary 1 other was up, she would assistance the nights spell faster.

‘My section friends were circular astir each time too, helping maine with my brainsick organising, bringing maine tea, crystals, hugs, notebooks, biscuits, laughs. They adjacent got a life-size cardboard cutout of maine made to instrumentality to our yearly Butlins travel arsenic I couldn’t go, and carried it astir for the full play with them.’

Eventually, the time of the cognition came. During the five-hour surgery, a surgeon made an incision from Max’s near to close ear, earlier drilling into her skull and taking a recognition card-sized portion of bony retired of her forehead to entree the tumour.

The country took it’s toll connected Max, and she had to relearn however to bash the astir basal of tasks – including turning connected her phone.

‘I forgot astir of the things I did for the twelvemonth earlier the seizure, and my friends had to capable maine in,’ she says.

‘I couldn’t hole a meal. I forgot to wash, cleanable my teeth – conscionable washing a sheet felt similar a gargantuan task. The days each blended into one, I couldn’t organise my time, I would hide arrangements. My person adjacent had to acceptable maine an alarm to instrumentality my medication.’

But aft a scan successful April 2023, surgeons confirmed that the afloat tumour had been removed and classified it arsenic benign and people 1 – the slightest terrible – which Max says was a ‘huge relief.’

The mum was told it could instrumentality astir 2 years for her to retrieve though, and she inactive has occupation remembering things, saying: ‘I can’t navigator similar I utilized to. I americium inactive relearning however to bake, and my children inactive punctual maine erstwhile I request to lavation my hair.

‘My centrifugal skills are not back, I can’t locomotion and speech astatine the aforesaid clip without getting a spot dizzy, I can’t equilibrium excessively good and my coordination is off.

‘My encephalon is inactive healing truthful somethings haven’t rather connected yet. I find it a existent effort to navigator and clean, whereas I would whizz astir doing each that successful a heartbeat before, similar each azygous parent! I can’t header successful crowds oregon with agleam lights.

‘It inactive feels similar the satellite moves excessively accelerated but I’m adapting. I instrumentality days wherever I remainder to recharge my encephalon battery, and I deterioration earplugs beauteous overmuch each the time.’

For Max, getting backmost into fittingness was crucial.

‘My friends astatine the gym saved my beingness and it was precise important for maine to get acceptable again, truthful aft 3 months I started going backmost to the gym,’ she says. ‘I haven’t been capable to bash each the classes I utilized to bash arsenic I person immoderate sensory and fatigue issues, but I’m adapting and doing what I can.’

Last year, unneurotic with friends and family, Max cycled a full of 274 miles to rise wealth for Brain Tumour Research. Her section gym, Simply Gym Swindon West, besides held a spinathon, and friends astatine Max’s café had a cook sale. Together they raised an unthinkable £5,900, which volition assistance money 2 days of research.

This year, she’ll beryllium continuing her fundraising efforts for the foundation by taking connected the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon connected October 6.

Max says: ‘Previously I would ne'er person signed up to instrumentality part, but since having the encephalon tumour I’m saying ‘yes’ to a batch much things now. I person a feeling this mightiness travel backmost but I don’t cognize for certain.

‘I’m truthful grateful to inactive beryllium live and I don’t privation to discarded my life. When I was being wheeled into theatre and determination was a kid connected a trolley successful beforehand of me, I thought: ‘You are 43, Max, you request to beryllium grateful you got this far.” That’s stuck with me.

‘Every time I aftermath up and propulsion unfastened the curtains and americium truthful grateful to spot the sunshine. I privation to rise wealth to assistance radical to person a amended accidental of surviving.’

Matt Newman, Chief Executive astatine lawsuit organisers, Run 4 Wales, commented: ‘We person truthful galore unthinkable and inspiring runners who instrumentality portion successful the Cardiff Half each twelvemonth and Max is impervious of that. We can’t hold to cheer Max and her friends implicit the decorativeness enactment arsenic they rise wealth for an highly worthy cause.’

For much accusation astir the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon sojourn their website. To donate to Max’s cause, sojourn her fundraising page.

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