A SOLIHULL teaching assistant who got a first-class honours degree just months after she finished radiotherapy for a brain tumour has been made a charity ambassador to help raise awareness about the devastating disease.
When Charlotte Green, 25, was diagnosed in her third year at Worcester University in March 2014, she feared she’d never finish her degree.
But just four months later, after completing a grueling course of radiotherapy, she went back to finish her studies and got a first-class honours degree.
Now she has been selected as one of 22 Young Ambassadors for The Brain Tumour Charity from all over the country helping to boost awareness about the disease – the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK.
After suffering seizures which doctors put down to stress, Charlotte was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had to drop out of her early childhood (practitioner options) BA honours degree course.
“I was devastated when I had to leave university,” said Charlotte.
Later she was told her tumour was cancerous – a rare grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma. She had six weeks of radiotherapy to shrink the tumour.
Amazingly, that September she went back to university to finish her degree and graduated the following year.
“I promised myself that having a brain tumour wasn’t going to stop me,” said Charlotte.
And now that fighting spirit will be used to support other people as Charlotte – and other fellow sufferers – have become ambassadors for the charity.
They all met at the charity’s headquarters in Farnborough, Hampshire.
“It was great to meet the other ambassadors,” she said.
“Some, like me, are patients while others have been affected because of the diagnoses of loved ones.
“Together, we’ll be able to reach out to more people and see how we can help others affected in different ways.”
For the past three years, Charlotte has taken part in the charity’s 10km Warwick Twilight Walk.
Over the last two years, she walked with an 80-plus strong group of family and friends dubbed Team Green, raising over £2,000.
Charlotte is planning on completing this year’s walk on October 8 and hoping once again to have her team beside her.
“My type of tumour doesn’t have a cure at the moment,” she added.
“But, with support from my wonderful family and friends, I have found the strength to carry on with my life and get the most out of it I can.
“Since my diagnosis, I have been to a number of amazing places in the world, including Australia, which I have been lucky enough to experience with my brilliant, supportive partner Nick.
“Along the way, I have come to terms with the fact that I have had to rewrite my own life story and that it’s OK if it’s not the same as everyone else’s.
“Fortunately, I have someone who loves me enough to do this with me.”
Emma Wood, the charity’s teenage and young adult worker, said: “Charlotte is an inspiration and we are delighted to have her as one of our new Young Ambassadors.
“She knows first-hand the devastating impact a brain tumour diagnosis has on the person and whole family. But she is a fantastic role model, who is doing her utmost to live life to the full.
“We are hugely grateful she is helping us to raise awareness and money for vital research. Despite brain tumours being the biggest cancer killer of children and young adults in the UK, of the £500 million a year spent on cancer research, only two per cent of that is spent on brain tumours.”
Visit: thebraintumourcharity.org for more information.
