South Yorkshire mum and stepdaughter both diagnosed with brain tumours at same time

Mother-of-three Tina Cranshaw, aged 51, had a debilitating headache and thought she could smell gas during a Zoom video call at home in Doncaster when she first fell ill.

After she started slurring her words and her face dropped, Mrs Cranshaw’s shocked colleagues on the call called an ambulance.

Mrs Cranshaw, mum to Theo, nine; Imogen, 28 and Abbie, 31, was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

Her doctors originally thought she had suffered a stroke, but a CT scan revealed a shadow on her brain.

She was then sent to Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital for a further MRI scan, with doctors confirming that the shadow on her CT scan was actually a brain tumour.

Her stepdaughter Daisy Cranshaw, 16, said: “It was horrible. I was doing my mock GCSEs, so it was a really stressful time.

“I was so worried, I kept thinking: 'This may be the last time I see my step mum'.”

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On October 2, 2020, Mrs Cranshaw underwent an operation to remove the tumour, which was the size of a golf ball.

Afterwards she was given the devastating diagnosis that she only had between six and 12 months to live.

Mrs Cranshaw is still fighting today.

To make the situation worse for the family, her stepdaughter Daisy was then diagnosed with a brain tumour just a year later.

The teenager said her symptoms had started in February of the same year.

Her GP put her headaches down to stress and when she went to A&E, the doctors there told her she had a migraine.

During a face-to-face appointment with her GP in September 2021, she told him she had a blind spot on the left side of her eye.

On December 9, she had an emergency MRI scan which revealed a mass on her brain and shortly after her brain tumour was confirmed.

Luckily, Daisy’s brain tumour is non-life-threatening, but she said the news was still hard to take for the family.

She said: “It was the worst thing to hear, especially after seeing what my stepmum has gone through.

“Dad is gradually losing his wife, and I thought that he could also be losing me. It was horrible.

“Fortunately, they found that some of my brain tumour is dead, which is brilliant news.

“I need to have scans every three months, but I've been told it's not life-threatening and they don't need to operate yet.”

Daisy is walking 10,000 steps every day this February to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.

She said: “There is such a lack of research into this devastating disease and more needs to be done.

“Not everyone is as fortunate as me to not have to have any treatment immediately like my wonderful stepmum.

“She's my inspiration in doing this as she always makes me persevere in everything I do.”

You can donate to Daisy’s fundraising campaign via her Facebook page here .