Gill – Testimonial

"I lived with a spinal tumour for nine years – but after surgery I can walk again."

When Gill discovered she had a giant spinal tumour, close to the brain, she was terrified of having surgery.

After nine years, as her symptoms got worse and worse, she decided she had nothing left to lose – and now she is walking again after braving the operation to remove the 4cm tumour.  

Gill, from Queensbury, Bradford, first went to Leeds General Infirmary with some numbness in her hands, in 2015.

“I had a scan and they discovered this meningioma in the back of my neck, in a very awkward place,” she says. “I went to see the consultant and he told me about the operation and the dangers. There was a risk that the surgery could cause permanent paralysis. It’s a very scary operation because of where it was, so close to my brain stem and spinal cord.

“At the time, because I was so well, and it wasn’t affecting my life, I chose not to have the operation.”

Deb Pal, Consultant Neurosurgeon & Spinal Surgeon at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “This was a very large tumour which was fully calcified, which means it was hard, like bone. The worry was that operating on the tumour could damage the spinal cord, so she was too scared to have surgery.

“We mentioned to her that if you don’t have surgery, it will gradually get worse, but she said: ‘I’ll take my chances.’”

Gill’s symptoms did get worse over the years, and she started having to use a walking stick. “I was thinking seriously about having the operation and then the pandemic hit,” she said. “Soon after that I started to go a lot more downhill and by the beginning of last year I was really starting to struggle.

“I could barely stand let alone walk. I was having to use a hospital bed and a hoist to get in and out. I couldn’t feed myself. I decided then that no matter the risks I had nothing to lose. I thought if I got any movement back at all I’d be happy.”

Gill finally decided to have the operation in summer 2024 and the effects were amazing.

“Immediately after the operation I could lift my arms more than I’d been able to for months, so that was fantastic,” she said.

After seven weeks in hospital Gill was able to return home and is still making progress in her recovery.

“It was a few weeks before I could stand,” she said. “I came out of hospital in the middle of September and I could walk a few steps.

“Since then I’ve progressed quite well. I can walk around the room with a Zimmer frame. I can get upstairs. I’m improving very slowly but the main thing is I can walk again. I can’t thank the surgeon enough. He did a brilliant job.”

The spinal surgery unit at Leeds Teaching Hospitals has an international reputation as a centre of excellence, with more than 1,500 elective procedures, more than 500 emergency operations and more than 12,000 clinical appointments each year. This case was rare, as the tumour was so close to the brain stem and spinal cord.

Mr Pal said: “It was the patient’s choice all the way along – consent is so important. There is never a right answer. These are very rare cases so it was difficult to predict how the surgery would go.

“We were prepared for it to be difficult, but we managed to remove the tumour relatively easily. It was a very uneventful surgery, done jointly with my consultant colleague Mr Priyank Sinha.

“It was life-changing for her. She can do things on her own now, six months down the line, she is still improving.”

Gill wishes she had had the operation earlier – but says it was such a tough decision to weigh up the risks. “I shouldn’t have waited as long as I did, but it was a very difficult decision to make because of the risks of permanent paralysis,” she said. “It was a balancing act all the way along.”