Strange change to my NOSE was the first sign of lethal brain cancer – now I have a year to live

A mother-of-three whose lethal brain cancer was missed by NHS doctors has revealed she has just a year to live, after struggling with bizarre symptoms she assumed were evidence of a mini-stroke.

Fiona Charles, 61, was baffled when she began to experience ‘random and strange episodes’ last summer, involving phantom smells like burning foods filling her nose.

This was usually coupled with a sudden rush of overheating and racing heartbeat.

The retired primary school teacher, from Aberdeen, was mostly concerned about the heart palpitations, assuming they were the sign of a mini-stroke ‘that would lead to a major one’. 

But when Ms Charles visited her GP for help, she was told not to worry—her symptoms were ‘unlikely’ to be anything sinister. 

But left ‘unsatisfied’, the family pushed for further investigations and arranged for a private MRI scan of her brain in October 2024.

The test revealed the devastating truth: Ms Charles had a glioblastoma—one of the deadliest type of cancers that kills 95 per cent of patients within five years. 

Only a quarter of patients will survive more than a year, according to The Brain Tumour charity.

 Ms Charles was given a prognosis of between a year and 18 months, despite a doctor-recommended treatment pathway.

Speaking of the heartbreaking diagnosis her son Jonny said: ‘I’ll never forget when she called us to come over so she could give the news to us in person.

‘We sat down in the living room, and she told us she had cancer.

‘We were all trying to come to terms with it, thinking about what the future might look like.

‘But it hit me that there were things she might never get to see. Weddings, grandchildren, all the moments you take for granted.’

Since her diagnosis, Ms Charles has completed radiotherapy and is currently on round five of six chemotherapy sessions.

The treatment is going as well as could be hoped, but has come with some severe side effects including severe fatigue, weight loss and reduced appetite.

Determined to keep her spirits up, Ms Charles has slowly returned to activities she loves like baking and cooking.

 To help raise funds for Brain Tumour Research, Jonny will be taking on the Edinburgh Half Marathon this Sunday.

He will run 13.1 miles and is determined to make sure more people understand how overlooked brain tumours still are.

‘This isn’t about finishing with a fast time. I’m doing it to raise money, to raise awareness,’ he said.

‘Just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research goes to brain tumours, even though they are one of the most aggressive and devastating forms of cancer.

‘That feels completely out of step with the impact they have on families like mine.’

Around 2,500 Britons and 12,000 Americans are diagnosed with a glioblastoma every year.

Headaches, seizures, nausea, drowsiness, vision problems and personality changes are key symptoms.

These are caused by the tumour increasing pressure inside the skull as it grows. 

  However, depending on where the growth is in the brain, patients can experience less common symptoms such as changes in sense of smell and taste and problems with speech. 

Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are go-to treatments, but in the vast majority of cases, this only works to keep the cancer at bay for a short period of time.

The lethal disease claimed the life of The Wanted singer Tom Parker in 2022. He was aged just 33.

The star was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in October 2020, and was given just 12 months to live by doctors.

In September 2021, 11 months on from the diagnosis, the father-of-two sang at the Stand Up 2 Cancer show at the Royal Albert Hall and even embarked on a Greatest Hits tour with his bandmates when the tumour was confirmed as ‘stable’ in November.

But a close family friend revealed today that his condition deteriorated rapidly once the tour came to an end in early 2022.