{"id":32672,"date":"2020-06-11T00:32:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T14:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/news\/brain-cancer-battle\/"},"modified":"2020-06-11T11:21:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T01:21:26","slug":"brain-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/living\/brain-cancer-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like flowers budding in spring, Alana-Mae Swain hopes the hair growing back on her head signals new life: one free from brain cancer.<\/h3>\n

For the past nine months, Alana-Mae, with the support of her family and husband Isaac, has undergone gruelling surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to rid herself of a stage 2 (bordering stage 3) anaplastic astrocytoma brain tumour.
\nBrain cancer kills more Australians under 40 than any other cancer (according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) and Ms Swain said people need to \u201clisten to their bodies\u201d.
\n\u201cIn September last year, four months after I was married, I had a grand mal seizure. I woke up to get ready and fell out of bed. I was taken to hospital in an ambulance, they ran some tests including a CT scan which showed a mass in my brain.
\n\u201cThey said it looked benign and sent me for further tests at the Alfred where they booked me in for a November surgery.\u201d
\nMs Swain was studying at TAFE at the time and put her constant headaches down to stress and exhaustion but reoccurring headaches was something she was familiar with.
\n\u201cI\u2019m originally from Adelaide and five years ago, I\u2019d get them all the time. I had to keep leaving work and lost my job because of it. They ran some tests but never did a CT scan.\u201d
\nIn the lead up to the surgery, Ms Swain was having up to 30 seizures a day, forcing her to completely lose feeling in her right hand and withdraw from study.
\n\u201cI went in for surgery and afterwards the neurosurgeon said they\u2019d taken the majority of the tumour out and it was cancerous. They told me I\u2019d have treatment for stage 3-4 cancer (radiation for six weeks and 12 months of chemotherapy).\u201d
\nMs Swain said while the journey has been hard, little things have helped, like receiving a random message from the Peace of Mind Foundation<\/a>.
\n\u201cI got a message from Bec Picone who runs Peace of Mind saying she\u2019d like to give us a gift to help over Christmas, she gave us a $500 gift voucher which meant we could enjoy Christmas Day. Another lady from Peace of Mind brought us over some food and nice bath products. We were so grateful for these amazing gifts and random acts of kindness.\u201d
\nAhead of her fourth round of chemotherapy and with her latest MRI showing the tumour is shrinking, Ms Swain is imploring people to \u201ctrust their instincts\u201d when it comes to their body.
\n\u201cI knew it was more than me just being tired, the doctors said the tumour had been there for 10 years. It would\u2019ve made a big difference if they found it a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like flowers budding in spring, Alana-Mae Swain hopes the hair growing back on her head signals new life: one free from brain cancer. For the past nine months, Alana-Mae, with the support of her family and husband Isaac, has undergone gruelling surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to rid herself of a stage 2 (bordering stage 3) […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":32673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-32672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrain cancer battle - Bellarine Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/living\/brain-cancer-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brain cancer battle - Bellarine Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like flowers budding in spring, Alana-Mae Swain hopes the hair growing back on her head signals new life: one free from brain cancer. 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