A KINGSWINFORD woman was almost left paralysed when bungling doctors repeatedly misdiagnosed her brain tumour as stress.

Chelsea Yeomans, aged 23, started suffering crippling headaches and dizzy spells when she was 13 which continued while she studied for her GCSE exams.

Doctors initially told her the pain was caused by stress and her hormones and sent her away with paracetamol.

But the pain continued and Chelsea became convinced she was suffering from something more serious so Googled her symptoms, which suggested she may have a brain tumour.

She told medics her concerns but again her fears were dismissed until one specialist carried out a CT scan which revealed a cancerous growth pressing down on her spinal cord.

Shockingly, Chelsea was told she was just two weeks away from the tumour causing irreparable damage which would have left her paralysed from the waist down.

Doctors discovered she had a tumour the size of an orange growing on the left side of her brain.

Chelsea, underwent an operation to remove 90 per cent of the tumour in 2014 but lost part of her memory and still suffers headaches today.

The operation also meant she was unable to continue her job as a hairdresser because she had forgotten her skills.

She has now retrained and is an administrator for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Chelsea said: "I had five-and-a-half years of headaches which turned out to be a brain tumour and was removed when I was 19. Since then I have been having regular MRI scans to see whether it grows back.

"I was two weeks away from being paralysed from the pressure on my spinal cord. It was lucky they got to it when they did.

"The headaches started around my GCSEs and because of my symptoms they put it down to stress. They said it was just hormones and I was being overly-dramatic, and it would go away if I took paracetamol.

"No one other than my mum believed me that it was more serious. It was a very hard time.

"In the back of my mind I sort of knew it wasn't just headaches and I wasn't being overly-dramatic.

"I Googled my symptoms and it said I had a brain tumour and it could be cancerous.

"I was worried it was because I kept my phone under my pillow but the surgeon later confirmed it was nothing to do with that.

"I was frustrating that it took so long to be diagnosed.

"My GP apologised for not pushing it earlier. The reception at the GP surgery wouldn't take me seriously - one receptionist told me they were fully booked but they weren't.

"The headaches were really horrible. I can't explain them, they were that terrible. I still went to work - I just self-medicated myself with diazepam.

"I wasn't prescribed - my mum takes it for her back pain.

"I lost a lot of memory during the operation. I'm hoping it comes back with time - but it has been four years and it hasn't come back.

"I still get some headaches because it is still there. I'm having to wear glasses to stop the headaches. I'm still worrying because I have had a brain tumour - will it come back?

"They don't know whether it will become malignant."

Chelsea was initially seen by her GP when she was a teenager before finally being referred to Russells Hall Hospital when she was 19-years-old.

She said she saw six specialists in one day until the last one told her she needed a CT scan after touching her neck, which caused her to scream in agony.

The scan revealed a brain tumour in the back of her head on the left hand side.

Within two days, surgeons at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital operated to remove 90 per cent of the tumour.

They had to leave ten per cent as it lay dangerously close to her cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for balance and coordination of muscles and the body.

After the operation, Chelsea initially had MRI scans every six months to monitor her condition, which has now moved to one every two years.

She is now backing The Brain Tumour Charity’s  award-winning HeadSmart campaign to raise awareness of children and teenagers’ brain tumour symptoms and reduce diagnosis time.

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust refused to comment on Chelsea's claims.