{"id":323604,"date":"2025-12-18T22:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/323604\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:59:13","slug":"west-lothian-woman-who-thought-she-was-spiked-in-ibiza-given-heartbreaking-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/323604\/","title":{"rendered":"West Lothian woman who thought she was spiked in Ibiza given heartbreaking diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amy McNamara said she was “drained and terrified” after surgery and treatment, and was left with a fear of dying which she initially struggled to open up about.\"AnAmy said so much of her diagnosis was “down to chance”.(Image: Brain Tumour Charity)<\/p>\n

A West Lothian woman who suffered a seizure on holiday feared she had been spiked – but was later told she had a cancerous brain tumour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amy McNamara, from Bathgate<\/a>, was visiting the Spanish island with friends in May 2023 when she became unwell overnight. Her friend witnessed the seizure and called for help, but Amy had no memory of what happened.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old said: \u201cOne minute I\u2019d laid down for a rest, the next minute, paramedics burst into the bedroom. I thought, maybe someone\u2019s put something in my drink. The medics in Ibiza did basic tests on me, and everything was ok. I walked out of the hotel room absolutely fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The episode was put down to a one-off occurrence, and she continued her holiday without any further illness.<\/p>\n

However, a few months later she began experiencing random panic attacks and blurred vision. She believed it could be due to looking at screens for her job as an accountant, the Daily Record reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amy decided to see her GP and discuss her concerns and was referred to neurology, where she was given a suspected diagnosis of epilepsy.<\/p>\n

She was sent for a scan to rule anything else out. She added: \u201cSo much of my diagnosis was down to chance. I nearly didn\u2019t have a scan. Then when I went for one, they forgot to do it with contrast at first.<\/p>\n

“A nurse called me back at the last minute. If they hadn\u2019t done the second scan, my tumour might have stayed undiscovered until much later.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was found to have a grade four astrocytoma, a common type of primary brain tumour which grows from star-shaped cells called astrocytes. In August 2023, she had an operation<\/a> to remove it.<\/p>\n

However, due to its position in the left temporal lobe, doctors feared her speech would be impacted by removing it all, so 10 per cent was left in her skull.<\/p>\n

Her surgeon decided he wanted to try again. She explained: \u201cMy surgeon is fantastic. I felt able to put all my trust in him. When I came round from my second operation, it was nice to see him sitting at the end of my bed, and to see that he was smiling! He was very happy to have taken 95% of the tumour out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy then had to endure several rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and is now monitored with scans every three months.<\/p>\n

She found it difficult at first to cope with the disruption of the diagnosis and treatment, and later with returning to work and trying to concentrate and perform at the same level as before.<\/p>\n

She said: “Although I\u2019m so glad most of my tumour was removed, it\u2019s tough to know that some of it was, and is, still here. Then daily sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for six weeks, and additional chemo for six months \u2026 it was draining and terrifying to try to accept, and try to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy discovered a free counselling service run by the Brain Tumour Charity, and decided to reach out for help.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI could talk about things I couldn\u2019t tell my mum. I\u2019d been in a bad way. I\u2019d been writing letters to leave to my family. I was scared of dying, and at the same time, I was trying to pretend that everything was fine. That\u2019s not healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy counsellor was amazing from the start. It was as if I knew her, and she knew me. As my treatment went on, my mood improved. She could see the improvements in me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always be grateful to the Charity for the support I received, and for the precious support they provided to family and friends. It made such a difference to how I was feeling, and helped me to get through my treatment.<\/p>\n

“It helped me into a routine and to get some independence back, without feeling terrified and angry due to memory issues etc, every day.”<\/p>\n

She has since taken on an Active Autumn challenge to raise funds to help other families going through a similar experience\u2013 and because she wanted to gain some of her fitness back.<\/p>\n

Her fundraising page can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amy McNamara said she was “drained and terrified” after surgery and treatment, and was left with a fear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[37774,59,102,2846,56,54,55,37776],"class_list":["post-323604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bathgate","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-holidays","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-west-lothian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}