A mum discovered a 'golf ball' sized tumour in her head after doctors dismissed it as 'baby brain'.
Natasha Hunton-Walker's symptoms of headaches and blurred vision were initially dismissed by health professionals until a scan revealed a staggering 5cm tumour had been growing in her head for a decade.
The new mum-of-one started experiencing the symptoms the day she gave birth to her son, Max, last year.
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"For me I started noticing symptoms the day I gave birth in late-September," Natasha explained.
She continued: "After I gave birth, I fell asleep for a couple of hours and woke up with 'word salad'. Words were coming out my mouth but they weren't in the context that was in my brain.
"The doctors and midwives just thought it was exhaustion. Then seven weeks into my post-partum I had headaches pretty much every day but they weren't severe."
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Natasha, who lives in Greenwich, London, then raised these health concerns with a number of opticians who put her eyesight issues down to breastfeeding and the exhaustion of being a new parent.
She recalled: "I kept going to the local opticians asking for an appointment but they kept saying it's really normal while you're breastfeeding to have weird vision so don't worry.
"I tried to go to three or four opticians in the London area but couldn't get an appointment.
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"None of the medical staff I spoke to gave the impression they were concerned or worried. They said it's normal in postpartum days to feel like this."
However, the 31-year-old was convinced her symptoms were not postpartum-related - and a chance visit to an opticians in December revealed something much a lot more serious.
After a screening on the back of Natasha's eye, the optician spotted an area of concern and told her to go to hospital immediately for further testing.
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"The optician said he could see a growth behind my eye and needed to go to hospital right away," she explained. "They did loads of eye tests and wanted to do a CT scan."
Natasha and husband Zac Hunton-Walker, 31, rushed to Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital where she was diagnosed with a golf ball-sized grade-two meningioma brain tumour.
She explained: "After the scan, they told me there and then that I had a brain tumour and I was absolutely broken. I was told it was 5cm.
"They told me later that they think I've had this tumour for ten years if not more."
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Natasha added: "As soon as you hear the words 'brain tumour', you think death, even though it doesn't necessarily mean that now. It felt like a punch in the gut."
Weeks later in January, Natasha underwent a ten-hour operation to remove the tumour - and feels 'lucky to be alive' following her unexpected health scare.
"My interpretation is that hormones sped things up," she continued. "The fact I didn't feel anything until giving birth tells me that my baby boy saved my life.
"A lot of symptoms are disregarded because they can be typical symptoms when you've just had a baby but I still don't think they should be ignored and passed on."
Natasha went on to reveal: "This tumour could've killed me one day. I feel so lucky and grateful about how this has turned out. It could've been beyond tragic and I could've so easily ignored these symptoms.
"I say to other people, trust your gut and don't accept 'it's just postpartum'. Be persistent and look after yourself.
"You know in your gut when things aren't right."
Rhiannon Ingle