A young woman who mistook her facial numbness as an anorexia symptom was diagnosed with brain cancer. Lauren Boon, 23, had previously lived with anorexia as a teenager and thought the numb sensations in her face and head were symptoms related to the eating disorder. But when the numbness continued she went to her GP and was sent for an MRI scan.
Lauren was diagnosed with a grade 2 astrocytoma in December 2023 - a slow-growing brain tumour. She had an operation to remove it in January 2024 but may need a second surgery after her follow up scan was inconclusive. Lauren, a health and wellbeing coach, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, said: "I developed an eating disorder in 2020 when I was 19.
"I was under medical supervision for this and mentioned my symptoms. The doctor said it's not something they had ever come across. I put it down to a sign of needing to eat something, in relation to maybe low blood pressure and low heart rate.
" Lauren overcame her eating disorder in 2023 but the numbness persisted. She said: "I went to the GP and they said it could be a trapped nerve around my jaw or something neurological. I was referred for an MRI scan in February 2023 and told I had a lesion on my brain.
I knew from my degree in psychology when I studied a little about the brain, the word lesion wasn't good." Lauren had another MRI in April 2023 and was told she had a benign tumour but in her six month check up in December she was told they needed to operate. Lauren had a craniotomy - .