For years, 73-year-old Glenn Lilley lived with bouts of vertigo, ringing in her ears and worsening hearing, and was told time and again there was nothing to worry about.

Then, in the summer of 2021, she collapsed at home and was given a diagnosis that turned her world upside down: a brain tumour so aggressive that without surgery she might have had only six months left.

The retired teacher, from Plymouth, first noticed something was wrong back in 2017.

She was plagued by waves of dizziness and tinnitus and referred to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist. 

An MRI scan was carried out but, according to Glenn, no problem was spotted. 

She was fitted with hearing aids and told she would simply have to live with the vertigo. 

'I'm never one to trouble the GP,' she recalls. 'I brush myself off and get on with things and I thought my symptoms were just something I'd learn to live with.'

Four years later, while bringing shopping into her house, Glenn collapsed, banging her head on a stone step. 

Her husband of 53 years, John, rushed her to A&E. She was so disoriented she could not remember her own name, she said.  

Doctors initially suspected a stroke but an urgent MRI scan revealed the truth: she had a grade II meningioma, a tumour growing from the meninges – the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. 

It stretched from behind her left eye to the back of her head. Looking at the scan, Glenn said: 'The tumour looked like two plums. I was shocked and horrified when doctors told me.'

Meningiomas are among the most common types of brain tumour, accounting for up to a third of diagnoses in adults. 

In the UK, more than 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour each year, and in the United States the figure is close to 94,000. 

Most meningiomas are slow-growing and classed as grade I, but grade II 'atypical' tumours, such as Glenn's, behave more aggressively and are more likely to recur. 

Although they are technically non-malignant, their location inside the skull can make them life-threatening. 

Five-year survival rates for patients with grade II meningiomas are typically between 65 and 75 per cent, but outcomes are heavily influenced by how much of the tumour surgeons are able to remove.

Doctors explained that Glenn's tumour had in fact been visible on her MRI back in 2017, but missed. 

By the time it was finally detected it had grown so fast that chemotherapy and radiotherapy were no longer considered viable. 'Slowly my mobility deteriorated, and I felt like I was dying,' she said. 

Steroids prescribed to reduce swelling caused her to balloon from 10 stone to almost 13. 'I had to buy maternity clothes,' she recalled. 'I looked like a different person.'

In September 2021 she underwent an 11-hour emergency operation at Derriford Hospital to remove the tumour. 

The surgery was successful, but doctors warned there was every chance it would return, perhaps within a decade, and that further operations could leave her with devastating injuries. 

'My surgery was cancelled twice as there were no beds in the ICU,' she said. 'By the time they finally operated, I felt I had no strength left.' 

Recovery was long and slow. It took her a year to lose the weight gained from steroids. 

She began walking outside first with crutches, then without, gradually rebuilding her fitness.

Today Glenn still lives with hearing loss, memory lapses and headaches. At the end of each day she feels her face sag as though it is dropping, and she constantly wipes her nose and mouth. 

But she remains upbeat. 'These are all manageable things,' she says. 'I've had a wonderful life and feel very lucky. I'm grateful just to be alive.'

Brain tumours, in all their many forms, remain one of the most complex and deadly types of cancer. 

There are more than 100 different kinds, ranging from benign growths that can be monitored for years to highly aggressive malignant tumours such as glioblastoma, which carries a dire prognosis. 

This type of brain tumours has claimed the lives of high-profile figures including singer Tom Parker, of boy band The Wanted, who died aged just 33 in 2022, and former Labour cabinet minister Baroness Tessa Jowell, who campaigned for better treatment before her death in 2018. 

Survival rates vary widely: while around 70 per cent of patients with low-grade or atypical meningiomas will live ten years or more, fewer than 10 per cent of people with glioblastoma survive beyond five years. 

Even benign tumours can cause lasting disability because of their position in the brain. 

Symptoms may include headaches, vision changes, seizures, personality shifts, hearing loss and vertigo – often leading to delays in diagnosis as they are mistaken for less serious conditions.

Glenn counts herself lucky to have come through surgery, even with ongoing side-effects. 

Motivated to use her experience to help others, she will join Brain Tumour Research's Walk of Hope in Torpoint this September to raise funds and awareness. 

'Now I'm beating the drum for the young people living with this disease,' she says. 

Letty Greenfield, community development manager at the charity, called Glenn's story 'truly inspiring,' adding: 'Her strength and positivity highlight the urgent need for greater investment in brain tumour research.'

For Glenn, life after her 'death-sentence' diagnosis is a gift. 

'I'm glad I didn't know about the tumour before, because I wouldn't have wanted to be viewed as poorly,' she said. 'I bear no grudge against the specialist who looked at my scan before. In the grand scheme of things, I'm just grateful to be here.'