Tipperary mum Alannah Sheehan was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer after having strange symptoms

Food as Medicine: The mother of two didn’t give up after she was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer in 2020. Here, she explains how she’s using food to stay well

When Alannah Sheehan was diagnosed with brain cancer aged 32, her entire world shattered. Her and her husband Martin had just managed to buy the house they were renting after it was put up for sale, and she was recovering from giving birth to her daughter, Phoebe.

After working hard and saving up, they could finally relax in their happy home with Phoebe and their sons, Finn and Luca.

Life had other plans, however. In March 2020, Alannah was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). While she had experienced strange and non-specific symptoms, she never thought she had something as serious as a brain tumour.

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Back in 2018, Alannah began feeling extremely dizzy; at times she was afraid to drive. “I didn’t put myself first, when I wasn’t working I was looking after my babies. Life was just too busy. I thought I had vertigo.”

The following year, Alannah became pregnant with Phoebe. What should have been a happy time turned into a nightmare when the house the young family were renting was put up for sale. “It was so stressful. I was working 14 hours a day as a chef. Me and my husband were basically not seeing each other to cut down on childcare.”

In September 2019, they bid on the house at an auction. Two months later, Alannah went into labour and got a phone call from to say the sale had gone through. “Later on that day, our beautiful girl Phoebe was born. We just couldn’t believe our luck, after everything we had been through, we were rewarded. Life was incredible, our family was complete,” she recalls.

Seizures

In January 2020, Phoebe was christened in what was a happy occasion for the family. That night, Alannah had a seizure in her sleep. “Phoebe was only seven or eight weeks old. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw my pillow and there was blood everywhere, I had bitten down on my tongue. I went to the doctor who said it could have been a once-off,” she says.

On Valentine’s Day, Alannah went over to her friend’s house with her children as both of their husbands were working. “My back went when I put the buggy into the car, I was an hour away, I had three tiny kids, I was looking for excuses not to go,” she admits. “But something in me just knew I needed to go, I really felt someone was looking after me that day.”

Alannah stayed the night at her friend’s and the next morning, she was walking into the living room with Phoebe in her arms. Suddenly, Alannah felt like she turned to rock. “I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak, it was like I was being pulled down to the ground. I tried so hard to say ‘help’ but I couldn’t. I knew I would fall and was so scared I would crush Phoebe who was only tiny.”

Alannah’s friend managed to run to her and caught Phoebe by the babygrow before Alannah fell on top of her. Alannah then had a really bad seizure for half an hour. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Once she arrived, she was prescribed anti-seizure medication and they did a few scans. “I thought it was something to do with my back, which I broke when I was a teenager. I also thought I may have developed epilepsy,” Alannah says.

But a professor later told her they found a mass on the right side of her brain. He said they could either leave it and monitor it, or she could have surgery to remove as much as possible and get a biopsy. “That’s when I thought it could have been cancer. I was told the surgery would be in 10 days, I knew it was urgent,” Alannah admits.

Diagnosis

Alannah’s body had not yet recovered from being pregnant, but she now had to undergo an eight-hour surgery which was very dangerous. “Your speech, sight and movement can be affected. While I was being operated on, I was awake for parts of it and they gave me a ball to squeeze to see how far they could go while operating. The staff were amazing, they put me at ease,” she recalls.

Surgeons managed to remove 90 per cent of the tumour and after a short recuperation on the ward, Alannah was sent home to wait for her biopsy results. Returning home was incredibly tough. Alannah’s head was partially shaved, she had a large scar, and she was on a lot of medication – but she also had to try and take care of three young children.

By this time, Covid-19 was spreading, which meant Alannah’s biopsy results had to be read out over the phone on the day the country went into lockdown. “The doctor said I had cancer. It was like everything stopped, I couldn’t breathe,” she says.

The doctor told her that her life expectancy was greatly reduced as she had a brain cancer called glioblastoma. The life expectancy of someone with GBM is 12-15 months with treatment and GBM patients have a five per cent chance of living longer than five years. She was told her treatment would be six months of chemo and 30 sessions of radiotherapy.

“Martin ran up the stairs and saw me crying on the ground. We were so happy and in love and the rug was just pulled out from underneath us,” she recalls. “Our lives were just beginning, it was so unfair after we worked so hard, we really didn’t deserve it.”

The isolation of lockdown made it tougher for Alannah. “I had to go into the cancer centre for radiotherapy five days a week for six weeks. For chemo, I was able to take tablets at home and I’d go to hospital once a month to get bloods checked.”

Healthy food

After a few months, Alannah decided that she was going to be as well as possible for her children. As a chef, she researched how food can impact health, and she started to feel hope. She began taking supplements, cooking alkaline foods and juicing, and she started to feel better. Alannah also tries to avoid processed food and seed oils. “Green juice is my medicine,” she says. “I also chew broccoli seeds because they contain sulforaphane, which is anti-inflammatory.

“All cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage) are very good for me. Beetroot and mushrooms are also great. Trying to avoid inflammation is key.”

Since her chemo and radiotherapy treatment finished, she has been called for scans to monitor her brain, all of which have been good. “I am pulling off a miracle. My doctors were brilliant and I wouldn’t be here without them, but I really think the food has helped too,” Alannah says.

The devoted mum has also changed her mindset. “I felt proactive and realised I have to take each day as it comes and be grateful for it. Before now, I would have been hard on myself. I am actually happier now than I have ever been,” she says.

Alannah decided to set up an Instagram account for her children, so they will have something to remember her by. She also shares recipes and raises awareness of GBM. “There is a lack of research into brain cancer even though it kills more children than leukaemia, more men under 70 than prostate cancer and more women under 35 than breast cancer. We need to do better.”

Follow Alannah on

IG: @worth_fighting4

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