‘Fit and healthy’ netball player dies of brain tumour months after blaming headaches on her diet
A FIT and healthy sportswoman died of a brain tumour - just three months after being diagnosed.
Catherine Roberts was travelling around New Zealand in February when she started suffering nasty headaches.
The 27-year-old went to see doctors, who sent her to hospital for scans.
They revealed a lump growing on her brain, and specialists told the international netball player she had an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Catherine's mum - also called Catherine - flew out to be with her daughter.
In May, they flew back to the UK, but doctors at home in Wales said the 27-year-old was too ill for treatment.
She died two weeks later.
Catherine, who was travelling with her fiancee Bryony Powell, also 27, thought her headaches were down to an iron deficiency.
Bryony said: "She was very healthy and active so it wasn't normal for her to have headaches.
"They thought she was low on iron then a few days later we were on a bike ride and she became really confused.
"That was the first major sign that something was wrong."
Catherine, from Blackwood, South Wales, played netball for Wales and had no health problems before setting off on the couple's dream trip.
FIND OUT MORE What is glioblastoma, what are the signs and symptoms and how is it treated?
But after doctors discovered the mass on her brain, they told her she was suffering glioblastoma - a very aggressive brain cancer, that claimed the life of former Labour MP Dame Tessa Jowell earlier this year.
Catherine had an operation in New Zealand, before travelling home.
Bryony said: "Where the tumour was located in in the personality part of the brain.
"While we were in New Zealand she hadn't cried, and she was quite an emotional person.
"She just said it was because she was having a great time, in hindsight that was the only symptom she had.
"Catherine was fit and healthy, the symptoms were things that people wouldn't necessarily checked.
"She was tired, had headaches, confusion and a slight change in personality."
A FAST-GROWING, AGGRESSIVE BRAIN CANCER
GLIOBLASTOMA is a cancerous brain tumour that are fast-growing and very likely to spread.
They belong to a type of brain tumour called gliomas, which grow from a type of brain cell called a glial cell.
They are grade four, meaning they are an aggressive growing tumour.
There is nothing you can do to prevent developing this type of brain tumour, the cause of which is not known.
Typically, patients are operated on to remove as much of the tumour as possible, before chemo and radiotherapy.
But, glioblastoma are hard to treat because they have threadlike tendrils that extend into other parts of the brain making it difficult to remove all of the growth.
Unfortunately, this type of brain tumour are so aggressive they often prove resistant to treatment.
After losing her fiancee, Bryony is determined to help raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of brain tumours.
She urged anyone who notices even slight symptoms to speak to their GP.
"It's really hard to process what happened and to be without her every day," she said.
"The family is just devastated, we all are. We are trying to get each other through.
"It was tough. She was such a positive person, we never thought the worst would happen.
"We got engaged and we were inseparable. It is really hard to be without her."
MORE ON CANCER
Friends are now organising a netball tournament in memory of Catherine, to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity.
Her former team the Celtic Dragons said: "The loss of Catherine is a huge blow to the netball community in Wales.
"She was universally admired by those who knew her. An inspirational person, she lived life to the full and did everything with a smile.”