‘Beautiful’ student, 19, died just months after being told she was deficient in vitamin D
WHEN Ellie Watts started to feel dizzy at a dress fitting for her mum’s wedding, they put it down to dehydration.
But after her lightheadedness continued for several weeks, Catherine O’Connor took her daughter to see their GP.
Ellie had some blood tests, which came back normal, so they assumed her symptoms were nothing to worry about.
It turned out they couldn’t have been more wrong; they were warning signs of a brain tumour.
Ellie was subsequently diagnosed with a grade 1 pilocytic astrocytoma and found to be suffering from hydrocephalus – a build up of fluid on the brain.
She underwent surgery, which removed most of her tumour, and Ellie remained stable for 14 months.
But in October 2023, she showed further signs of hydrocephalus, suffered a cardiac arrest and died aged 19.
Her mum Catherine wants to share her daughter’s story to help stop other families going through the same pain.
She said: “Ellie was pretty special. She was full of fun and just the most amazing person to be around.
“All the tributes we got following her death spoke about how beautiful she was inside and out, and about her smile and positivity.
“I hope by sharing Ellie’s story and raising money for Brain Tumour Research other lives can be saved.”
Catherine, from Dartford, Kent, first noticed her daughter’s symptoms in late August 2021 during the final dress fitting for her wedding the following month.
“She was almost swaying and said she felt a bit unsteady and had been getting dizzy,” she said.
“At 5ft 3in, and weighing just eight and a half stone, she was tiny and I thought she probably just needed some water.
“When she was still getting dizzy in October, I told her to go see the doctor to get checked out.”
Ellie had some blood tests, which came back normal, and was asked to return to get her B12 level tested, which were also fine.
She made another appointment in January to discuss what else could be wrong, and she was told she was “probably deficient in vitamin D”.
Doctors also advised that she take an antihistamine to help with her dizziness and to drink more water.
This seemed to work, Catherine said, but in April Ellie began feeling sick and vomiting “out of nowhere”.
Her headaches also returned and she often had sweat on her top lip.
I burst into tears. I was struggling to breathe and felt so bad that Ellie was having to hold me up when it was her who had the brain tumour
Catherine
“By then she was going out socially and we put it down to something she’d had to eat or drink,” she added.
Ellie, 18, had to take several days off work from her part-time job at John Lewis, Bluewater, before having further medical tests.
An MRI scan at a private clinic in Hornchurch, Essex, in August 2022 revealed an “abnormality” and she was admitted to Darent Valley Hospital.
Catherine said: “She was strapped up to machines, fitted with a cannula and had her bloods taken.
“The next thing we knew, we were being told Ellie had a brain tumour.
“I burst into tears as she told me not to worry and everything would be alright.
“I was struggling to breathe and felt so bad that Ellie was having to hold me up when it was her who had the brain tumour.”
Catherine’s husband Chris raced to the ward and the family were blue-lighted to King’s College Hospital in London, where they discovered Ellie also had hydrocephalus.
A neurosurgeon explained Ellie had a tumour in her cerebellum which was pressing on her brain stem and causing a build up of fluid.
‘Dripping with sweat’
Surgery to remove it took seven hours, and miraculously, Ellie was able to walk unaided just two days later.
Within two months, she had returned to work and started her criminology and criminal justice degree at the University of Greenwich.
At her last check-up in July 2023, the family breathed a sigh of relief when doctors confirmed her tumour remained stable.
But weeks later, Ellie started getting headaches and vomiting again.
Catherine took her straight to A&E, where she began “dripping with sweat and became uncoordinated”.
“I was having to support her as we were called into a room with only a chair and a desk,” Catherine said.
“Ellie’s hair was soaked and I thought she was going to pass out as I sat her down.
“I told the doctor what was happening and said, ‘This is really serious, you have to help her, now’.
“‘Oh my God’, she said, before leaving and returning with a wheelchair, looking really panicked.
“She literally ran Ellie up to the CT scanner with me in front opening all the doors.
“A couple of hours later, a doctor shouted, ‘Get her into resus, she’s got hydrocephalus’.
“I was told we needed to wait three more hours so Ellie could have an MRI scan but I knew she didn’t have that long and said I wanted her transferred to King’s.”
We were told the damage was catastrophic
Catherine
Finally, at 5.45am, an ambulance arrived.
“Just as it was about to leave, Ellie started making strange noises and the driver rushed to get a registrar,” Catherine said.
“Ellie was taken off the ambulance to be stabilised and as soon as she got to resus, they started CPR.
“It took eight minutes to get her back and she never woke up again after that.”
Ellie was taken to King’s for the operation but her brain “didn’t respond as they would have liked”.
A scan the following morning revealed her brain stem had been pushed into her spine.
“We were told the damage was catastrophic and the only thing keeping her alive was her life support,” her mum said.
“She was on the donor list, so kept alive until the following day.
“In total, my wonderful daughter donated five organs.”
More than 150 people attended Ellie’s funeral, and together they have raised thousands of pounds of charity.
Catherine, who ran the Norfolk Marathon on April 28, said: “Ellie’s death is a massive loss but she will live on, not just in those people to whom she donated organs but in all those who knew and loved her.”
Hugh Adam, from Brain Tumour Research, said: “Ellie’s story serves as a stark reminder of the indiscriminate nature of brain tumours, which can affect anyone at any time.
“We’re determined to change this, but it’s only by working together we will be able to improve treatment options for patients and, ultimately, find a cure.
“Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease since records began in 2002.”
The most common symptoms of a brain tumour
More than 12,000 Brits are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year — of which around half are cancerous — with 5,300 losing their lives.
The disease is the most deadly cancer in children and adults aged under 40, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.
Brain tumours reduce life expectancies by an average of 27 years, with just 12 per cent of adults surviving five years after diagnosis.
There are two main types, with non-cancerous benign tumours growing more slowly and being less likely to return after treatment.
Cancerous malignant brain tumours can either start in the brain or spread there from elsewhere in the body, and are more likely to return.
Brain tumours can cause headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting and memory problems, according to the NHS.
They can also lead to changes in personality weakness or paralysis on one side of the problem and problems with speech or vision.
The nine most common symptoms are:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Feeling sick
- Being sick
- Memory problems
- Change in personality
- Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Vision problems
- Speech problems
If you are suffering any of these symptoms, particularly a headache that feels different from ones you normally get, you should visit your GP.
Source: NHS