On this heartfelt episode of The Aunty M Brain Tumours Talk Show, Katie Smith — a mother, teacher, and writer — shares the raw truth behind her brain cancer diagnosis and the years that followed. Katie was just 30 when her life changed in an instant. What started as headaches and tingling sensations in her arm turned out to be a grade 2 oligoastrocytoma, a rare brain tumour. She was rushed into surgery and faced the terrifying possibility of losing her speech, mobility, or even her life.
And yet, this is not just a story of fear. It’s also a story of fire — the fire that lit in Katie’s heart to live, to fight, and to find meaning beyond the diagnosis. After a second surgery and rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Katie’s tumour is stable. Katie’s story is one of brutal honesty. There are no tidy bows here. Just a mother living week to week, doing everything she can to buy more time and create impact while she’s here. This episode will move you, educate you, and most of all, it will remind you how fragile and precious life is.
“The overwhelming grief for the life I imagined, and learning that grief and gratitude can co-exist”
Katie set up a Fundraising Group under the Brain Tumour Research Umbrella called Brainstorm
“I need to try to make a difference. I don’t want to know what I know about brain tumours and how they affect and kill. They’re the biggest cancer killer of the under-40s and children. And still we haven’t got a cure. I can’t know that information and not try to do something about it and be proactive. And I knew that this charity was putting funds into research.
to try and find a cure, to try and find, you know, just new, better treatments, because there hasn’t been a new brain tumour treatment now since Temozolomide came along, which was over 20 years ago. And they need to start trying more novel, unique approaches because those things aren’t working and they’re horrible, they’re barbaric. Children have to go through these treatments.
And when mothers are like desperately trying to raise money to get their child to have like a clinical trial in Germany or America because there are no other options on the NHS. That just, having had a little boy at that point, I just thought if I were in that situation with my kid, what would we do? What would I do about it? And it broke my heart to think about that. And so I just said, let’s throw ourselves into this. So we created a fundraising group under the title of Brainstorm.” Katie
Find Out More About Brainstorm Here
Also find on Facebook HERE
