Mother, 57, bedridden after GP mistook her brain tumour for menopause

A woman has claimed doctors dismissed her fatigue and vision problems as being related to depression, menopause or fibromyalgia – but after being bedbound for two years, discovered they had been symptoms of a brain tumour.

Karen Tait, 57, a former office manager from Fakenham in Norfolk suddenly began feeling hot, achy, clammy and fatigued in October 2022.

Within weeks, she suffered blurred vision and found it difficult to focus or look at bright lights.

She also developed a severe sensitivity to smells and noise, and gradually her legs ‘hurt so much’ that she became bedbound.

Mrs Tait said: ‘One day, I went to bed, and I didn’t get out of bed again for two years. 

‘I also had what I describe as concrete neck. I felt I couldn’t lift my head. I also suffered with insomnia.’

It wasn’t until 2024, when she was ‘too ill’ to attend a routine MRI scan to check for signs of vaginal cancer, a disease she had previously overcome, that her gynaecologist booked her in for an MRI scan while under sedation. 

These tests revealed she had a non–cancerous type of tumour called a meningioma in her brain, and she underwent surgery to remove it.

Speaking about how her life changed that fateful morning she woke up unable to get out of bed, Mrs Tait explains that she needed full-time care from her husband, Neil, 58, and additional support from her daughter, Elle, 30, to do simple every day activities. 

She said: ‘Our lives changed overnight. My daughter, who was living in London, would come home every weekend to give my husband some rest.

‘If I needed to go to the bathroom, my husband would have to carry me. He became my carer.’ 

Despite multiple visits to her GP where her family advocated for her, doctors suggested she had fibromyalgia, depression or was experiencing menopause.

In November 2024, two years since her symptoms began, she was ‘too ill’ to attend a routine MRI scan for previous vaginal cancer. 

She said: ‘My gynaecologist was concerned that I wasn’t physically able to get to the appointments.

‘My husband had wheeled me into Norwich Hospital, where I had a sedation MRI. 

‘They had found a massive mass on my brain with characteristics of a meningioma.’ 

After being told she had a mass on the brain, she was told that she would need to undergo a craniotomy to remove the mass and send it off for biopsy. 

In February 2025, she underwent a craniotomy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Surgeons removed most of the mass and sent it off for biopsy.

Mrs Tait said: ‘They said there was nothing to indicate any malignancy, and that was a huge sense of relief for me.

‘I was able to wake up after that operation to see those bright lights in the hospital. I knew that was the beginning of my recovery.

‘I was wheeled into that hospital and two weeks later I was able to walk out on my own.’

The biopsy results revealed the tumour was a grade 2, slow–growing meningioma, and much to her and her family’s relief, it was benign.

She said: ‘There was a real mix of emotions for us all. There was a bit of validation. I was constantly being told by my GP that it was all in my head.

‘I was angry, I had overwhelming relief, and then I had the fear of the operation that was to come.

‘The meningioma diagnosis has had the most devastating impact on my loved ones. They have suffered so much because of it.’ 

Now, Mrs Tait requires yearly check–ups to monitor growth, and is supporting The Brain Tumour Charity’s investment into this meningioma research, which has historically lagged behind other brain tumours.

It is estimated more than 4,500 people are diagnosed with malignant brain tumours in the UK each year. 

According to The Brain Tumour Charity, more than 80 per cent of people with this type of tumour survive for five years or more after diagnosis.

Symptoms include blurred vision, arm or leg weakness and seizures, as experienced by Mrs Tait.

But seeing double, headaches, hearing loss, ear ringing, memory loss, loss of smell and trouble speaking are also signs. 

The Brain Tumour Charity have awarded a £1.5million ‘Quest for Cures’ grant to research that aims to discover why some meningiomas – the type of tumour that Karen has – respond better to radiotherapy than others.

Dr Simon Newman, chief scientific officer at the charity said: ‘Our Quest for Cures grants enable new collaborations around the globe that could bring benefits to patients faster.

‘One area of urgent need is better treatment targets for meningioma, as responses to radiotherapy vary widely.

‘But we need to know more about how these tumours interact with the immune system to make this happen.

‘This project therefore marks an exciting step towards every person with a meningioma receiving treatment suited to their needs.’

Fibromyalgia is a ‘syndrome’ rather than a disease, because it is a collection of symptoms that often occur together but don’t have a single, identifiable cause.

It’s estimated to affect between two and three million Britons, and is diagnosed in men and women.

Writing in the Daily Mail yesterday, Dr Max Pemberton explained: ‘It’s typically characterised by widespread pain, profound fatigue, sleep disturbances and what patients often describe as “fibro fog”, a maddening inability to concentrate or remember things that were once second nature. 

‘Many sufferers also experience headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and, understandably, depression.

‘The big problem for medics is that fibromyalgia doesn’t show up on blood tests or scans. There’s no definitive diagnostic marker, no smoking gun that proves beyond doubt what is wrong. 

‘This has led to a distressing situation where many patients feel dismissed, disbelieved – or worse – told that their symptoms are “all in their head”.’