A Cumbrian woman will row a marathon to raise money for charity in support of her daughter who has a brain tumour.
Karen Horn MBE, 60, of Arlecdon will take on the 26.2-mile challenge for the Brain Tumour Trust at her home gym on Sunday in support of Hannah, 29, who has chronic health conditions.
Karen, who retired from her role as a staff officer in the MoD dealing with bereavement support seven years ago, said: “Hannah’s brain tumour has had a massive impact on all of our lives. It has ruined the life she should have had.”
Karen and her husband Ian first noticed something was wrong in 1997, when Hannah was five.
They thought it was resolved a couple of years later but, knew something wasn’t right with Hannah when she was about 11.
Karen said: “Hannah had severe headaches and was throwing up. Many of her friends, and even her teacher, accused her of faking her symptoms. No-one, including the doctors, had any answers.”
In 2007, when Hannah was 14, she had a routine check-up with an optician who made an emergency referral for her to have a CT scan.
This was followed up by an MRI scan and the results revealed Hannah had a brain tumour. She immediately underwent surgery.
In July 2008, she endured a six-week course of radiotherapy at Southampton. Her latest surgery took place in January 2015 at the Royal Victoria Infirmary , Newcastle, to remove a tumour that had grown around the optic chiasma rendering her partially sighted.
Karen said: “Craniopharyngioma is a rare, non-cancerous brain tumour which affects the pituitary gland. Although considered ‘benign’, it can be deemed malignant in its behaviour.
“Many people have the tumour removed and go on to live normal lives but, unfortunately, this is not the case for Hannah.
“Due to regrowth, she has undergone four major brain surgeries which have caused significant trauma to her brain, causing her to suffer from debilitating pain on a daily basis.”
Karen has been training for her rowing marathon since April, and she has been coached by her husband Ian, 60, a retired army colonel and mentored by her old judo partner Paul Cahill, 61.
Karen, also mum to Harriet-Alice, 32, said: “The lack of funding for brain tumours is terrible. It is way below what it should be, so it has made me determined to raise money so other people don’t have to go through what we’ve been through.”
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer yet historically just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.
To make a donation to Brain Tumour Research via Karen’s JustGiving page, visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Karen-Horn-MBE
Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK. It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure.
The charity is calling for a national annual spend of £35 million in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia and is also campaigning for greater repurposing of drugs.