A 45-year-old woman from Swindon will be taking on the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon to raise money for charity after discovering she had a brain tumour.
Max Wrathall, who runs Jubilee Café a community café at Jubilee Lake, is now in recovery after having the 5cm tumour removed in December 2022.
She is now training for the event on Sunday 6th October and will be running with her friends, Jody Johnson, Kelly Ohrland and Kirsty Smith, who she says helped save her life.
Max had no indication there was anything wrong until she suffered a seizure in November 2022.
She said: “I’d been spinning with my friends and we were in the gym car park making a coffee in my van when I started having a seizure. Jody caught me while I was fitting and tried to put me in the recovery position while Kirsty called for an ambulance. I was unconscious but they told me it arrived within minutes and took me to The Great Western Hospital.”
It was the first seizure Max had ever experienced and she wasn’t scanned straight away, she was sent home to recover. Luckily Kelly noticed Max wasn’t herself after the seizure and took her to the GP and then A&E. After two CT and two MRI scans, doctors discovered she had a 5cm tumour on her brain. She needed to have urgent surgery and was referred to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for 19th December 2022.
Max said: “I was very detached from it all. I remember being very tired from the medication and not having much awareness of what was going on. But I had total faith in my surgeon and just wanted to the tumour out. I made sure not to Google anything, which helped keep me calm, although I later found out that only around 50% of people with brain tumours survive, and they are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40. Of 12,000 people diagnosed with a brain tumour each year, over 5,300 people lose their lives.
“My mum, Jan, and my ex-husband, Paul, looked after my daughters, Georgie and Frankie, and Kelly rounded up my team of women to make sure there was always someone with me – they even helped to keep my business ticking over. Although it wasn’t easy, staying positive and trying to find ways to laugh helped get me through and we called ourselves the ‘humour before tumour team’.”
Max’s surgery lasted five hours and her surgeon needed to make an incision from her left to right ear, before drilling into her skull and taking a credit card sized piece of bone out of her forehead to access the tumour.
She said: “I was in hospital for four days and needed 50 staples in my head. Then after having my next scan in April 2023, they could confirm that the full tumour had been removed and that it was a benign and grade 1 – the least severe. That was a huge relief.”
Max was told it could take around two years for her to recover, however as she was so fit and had great cardiovascular health from going to the gym, this would make a huge difference.
The mum-of-two said: “It’s been a year since my surgery and I’m still recovering. My memory was poor and I had to relearn to do things like cook and get in the shower. Sometimes even now I still need to be reminded of the basics, but I have an incredibly supportive group of people around me.
“My friends at the gym saved my life and it was very important for me to get fit again, so after three months I started going back to the gym. I haven’t been able to do all the classes I used to do as I have some sensory and fatigue issues, but I’m adapting and doing what I can.”
Last year, together with friends and family, Max cycled a total of 274 miles to raise money for Brain Tumour Research. Her local gym, Simply Gym Swindon West, also held a spinathon and friends at Max’s café held a bake sale. Together they raised an incredible £5,900 which will help fund two days of research.
This year, she’ll be continuing her fundraising efforts for the charity by taking on the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon.
She said: “This is my first half marathon, although the others have all run it before. Previously I would never have signed up to take part, but since having the brain tumour I’m saying ‘yes’ to a lot more things now and want to do things that challenge me.
“My brain tumour was lifechanging for me and there is still a risk it could come back. It makes you reassess everything. I’m so grateful to still be alive and I don’t want to waste my life. Every day I wake up and pull open the curtains and am so grateful to see the sunshine. I want to make the most of what time I have left and try to raise money to help people to have a better chance of surviving.
“Entering the Cardiff Half helps motivate me to keep fit. To be part of something like that is really special and I’m looking forward to getting to the finish line, achieving something amazing with my friends, being there and being alive.”
Matt Newman, Chief Executive at event organisers, Run 4 Wales, commented: “We have so many incredible and inspiring runners who take part in the Cardiff Half each year and Max is proof of that. We can’t wait to cheer Max and her friends over the finish line as they raise money for an extremely worthy cause.”
For more information about the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon visit: www.cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk/ or to donate to Max’s fundraising page visit: www.justgiving.com/page/kelly-ohrland-1689952204549
