A mother who thought her teenager's tiredness, headaches and sickness were results of stress caused by his GCSE exams was stunned when he was told he had a brain tumour.
Samantha Halket originally believed 16-year-old Thomas' clumsiness was a "gangly teen growth spurt" and considered stress had been caused by tests at school.
Thomas' headaches got worse though and, Samantha, 39, booked her son an eye test at Specsavers. Opticians referred him to the emergency eye clinic at Royal Stoke University Hospital.
Various tests revealed the teenager, Samantha's her youngest son, had a 5cm by 6cm grade one brain tumour, a pilocytic astrocytoma, which was surrounded by a cyst.
Samantha said: "With all the things going on like exams and the stress of them, and he had a bit of time where he wasn't great at eating, I put them down to him staying up at night, being on the computer screen and not getting enough sleep.
"He went to get something out of the car and instead of walking in a straight line, he was walking like a snake [and zig zagging]. We were just thinking 'he's so clumsy and is in Thomas' world'.
"I put it down to him being a clumsy, gangly teenager. He grew very quickly and his legs are three quarters of his body and he's got size 10 feet."
Thomas had the cyst removed on May 1, two days after the scans. A slither was left behind, though, as fully extracting it was likely to cause more problems, and the boy was eventually discharged from hospital a fortnight ago.
But the "brave and resilient" youngster is still struggling with his balance and coordination, and is unable to walk unaided but his doting mum has high hopes that after physio and recovery time, it will improve.
Samantha, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, continued: "It was really big and was blocking all the fluid from being able to move properly (around his brain).
"It was terrifying. We weren't expecting it at all. Thomas has been the bravest throughout it and only got upset once, and it was that moment when we were told what it was.
"We'd gone to Specsavers after school, he was still in his uniform. We just thought we'd be there, this would be sorted out and we'd go home. Everything just fell apart, it was scary.
"Even now, it still doesn't seem real because it was such an emergency, it happened so fast."
After a whirlwind experience, Samantha, a mobile catering company owner, is keen to raise awareness of the importance of routine eye tests, as she credits her Specsavers' trip with saving Thomas' life.
Thomas, who is an aspiring accountant, didn't constantly have headaches and would have them around one or two days a week.
But his most persistent symptom was problems with his vision.
The mum said: "I put his eyesight [getting poorer], down to thinking that computer screens are no good for your eyes and his tiredness from being on the computer a bit too late, and being a typical teenager.
"He had a couple of weeks where he had cold after cold and just kept picking things up. So with the sickness I just thought, is it another bug? Because there was a lot of sickness going around.
"I saw that the headaches were getting worse because sometimes he'd come in and would go to sleep or I found him in a dark room.
"We were told that Specsavers saved his life because the fluid [in his brain] was struggling to get past, so any moment something serious could have happened. His whole body could have shut down. It was essentially a ticking time bomb.
"He's very brave and resilient. He's got us through it. His mentality has been 'ok, let's go, let's do it'."
The teen is due to have another MRI in August and the remainder of his tumour will be monitored to ensure that it doesn't grow.
A couple of days after his op he started physio, which will be ongoing.
Samantha said: "He's ok in himself. The only issue that he's having is balance and coordination.
"He can dress himself, he's managing to eat now but he can't prepare meals or stand up for long periods.
"He's not able to walk unaided at the moment. He's very wobbly, his balance just hasn't come back at all yet.
"He's got a crutch for short walks but he's in a wheelchair if we go out anywhere. We're hoping his balance and coordination will improve, it's just going to take physio and time.
"We just wanted to raise awareness of the importance of eye tests.
"I'd tell other parents to try and keep up with their children's eye tests because I don't think people realise how important they are, because I didn't."
Thomas said: "Finding out I had a brain tumour was terrifying. I'm looking forward to feeling better and the future."
Specsavers was contacted for comment by Mirror.
Specsavers’ Clinical Services Director Giles Edmonds said: "Cases like these really highlight how important regular eye examinations are, for people of all ages. As well as improving and correcting our vision, they can also detect a range of potential health issues – sometimes well before any other symptoms develop.
In the majority of instances, any eye issues detected can be easily treated, and cases such as Thomas’s are extremely uncommon. However, we recommend getting an eye test at least every two years, regardless of whether you have experienced any symptoms or not. If something doesn’t feel right, or if you notice changes or have concerns in either yours or your children’s eyesight, my advice would then be to not wait and make an appointment as soon as possible with an optician or your GP.”
