Devastated mum loses four family members from same aggresssive cancer within just 16 years
Devastated mum loses four family members from same aggresssive cancer within just 16 years
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A mum has shared her heart-wrenching story after she lost four family members to aggressive brain tumours within a span of 16 years. Claire Cordiner has endured the loss of her mother, younger sister, nephew and cousin to the deadly disease. The residential care officer hopes that by shedding light on her family's tragic experiences, she can raise awareness about brain tumours, which claim more lives under the age of 40 than any other cancer. Claire's mother, Margaret O'Kane, of Wishaw, Scotland, succumbed to a brain tumour at the age of 67 in 2008.
This was followed by the death of her sister Angie Jones, 36, from East Kilbride, in 2009; Angie's son Max, 19, also fell victim to a brain tumour in 2023, and her cousin David McCulloch, 56, was the most recent casualty last year. "My mum's speech started to go a bit and the GP initially thought it had been a mini stroke and they said they would keep an eye on it," Claire, of Gilmerton in Edinburgh, told Edinburgh Live. "But within a matter of weeks she became incoherent and my dad took her to hospital.
"Her eyesight wasn't great either and she thought it was old age. She never suffered from any headaches. Thankfully she was offered a scan right away where they discovered two tumours, one at the front of her brain and the other at the base. "She was offered radiotherapy but at a reduced dose due to her age and later underwent surgery to remove as much as they could from the front tumour but they could not touch the base.
