Happily Ever After: Shona’s Journey Beyond a Brain Tumour

By Mpundu Valerie

PLEASE NOTE: Persistent headaches, particularly in the morning, repeated vomiting, blurred vision, clumsiness, changes in behaviour, or seizures in a child should never be ignored. Seek prompt medical assessment, especially when symptoms occur together or worsen. These symptoms can have several causes, but a healthcare professional can determine whether further investigations or brain imaging are needed.

Shona was 9.

It started small. Headaches that wouldn't go away after school. She would hold her head and say, "Mama, my head is heavy."

Then her vision blurred in class. She started bumping into the door frame. She was vomiting in the morning, even when she had not eaten anything.

We thought it was her eyes. Or stress. Or too much screen time.

Until the symptoms persisted.

Scans found it to be a low-grade meningioma. Slow-growing. Grade 1. That word "tumor" broke me. But the neurosurgeon explained what many people don't know:

1. Low-Grade Tumors are often curable. Tumors like Grade 1 meningiomas grow slowly. They don't spread like high-grade cancers. When found early, they are among the most treatable brain tumors.

2. Complete Removal can mean a full life. If a neurosurgeon can safely remove the tumor completely, many patients achieve long-term remission or even a full cure. No chemo. No radiation. Just surgery and follow-up.

3. High treatability in younger patients. Certain diagnoses, especially low-grade ones in children, have very high survival rates when caught early and fully removed.

They caught hers early because we paid attention.

Surgery was done. The tumor was on the surface, not deep inside. The team removed it completely.

She woke up. Headache gone. Vision clear.

Today she is 16. She is in Form 3. She plays netball. She has no deficits. She goes for an MRI once a year just to check, and every year, it is clear.

She lived fully afterward.

Meningiomas in children are rare, but when they are low-grade and removed completely and early, the story can end like hers not with loss, but with life.

Looking back, I think about those early signs we nearly explained away. We thought it was her eyes. We thought it was stress. We did not immediately understand what her body was telling us.

The lesson is not to panic every time a child complains of a headache. It is to pay attention when symptoms persist, recur, or appear alongside changes in vision, balance, or behaviour.

Listen when a child says something is wrong. Seek medical advice. Do not allow persistent symptoms to become the new normal.

Shona’s story is her happily ever after and a reminder that, even in frightening moments, there can be room for hope.

Have a story to share? Send it to 263774778179.

childhood brain tumour awareness