KAWARTHA LAKES-While most teenagers are enjoying the summer holidays and preparing for the next school year, 16-year-old Angela Brooks is in the hospital fighting to regain her active life.
Brooks was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour called a suprasellar germinoma in March after being sick for two years. The athletic teen won the Female Athlete of the Year award in Grade 8 and Grade 9. She plays rep basketball with the Lindsay Wildcats as well as rep baseball and attends St Thomas Aquinas in Lindsay.
“Angela is awesome, she’s not freaking out about her cancer she’s more worried about school. She’s not feeling well so that’s not good, it’s definitely been an emotional rollercoaster for us all.” Mom Ashley Wood told Kawartha 411 News.
Wood says her daughter started feeling unwell about two years ago.
“She started getting pale and getting skinny, out of breath, had excessive thirst and lost her period. For years went to the doctor but it was written off as hormones, a teenager not eating well and working out too much etc.” Wood told Kawartha 411 News. “in March she was playing with her siblings and she tumbled down the last four steps of stairs and landed on her back. We took her to emerg to make sure nothing was broken. They did an x-ray and a CT scan and that’s when they saw the mass in her head.”
Once doctors detected the mass, Brooks was booked for brain surgery the next day. Since then she’s had a spinal tap, MRIs, a number of rounds of chemotherapy and is awaiting radiation.
“Her tumour was aggressive and was spreading through her brain so they had to remove a piece of her skull,” Woods explains.
Her type of cancer destroyed her pituitary gland which produces hormones to control growth, blood pressure, metabolism and more. Sometimes she requires hospitalization at a moment’s notice and her parents need to be there with her.
“I am not working right now, when we first found out about we were sent to sick kids for a day appointment and they kept her and wanted us to come back the next day and have her admitted. We’ve had a lot of emergencies where we have to go to the hospital. She was admitted multiple times for weeks. Her dad has been right there with her so we both missed a lot of work.”
Recently, they got some good news. In June doctors informed them that the tumour is shrinking but Brooks has been hospitalized twice since then after falling ill during chemotherapy. She is still in hospital today.
The family has had to pay out of pocket to stay in Toronto and with a three-week stint of radiation soon the bills are piling up.
“I’ve found hard times can either make you or break you and this is definitely a hard time. I know for me and my partner and it’s been hard on the whole family.”
A Go Fund Me has been started to help the family during this time. Click here for more information:Â https://www.gofundme.com/f/angela-in-her-fight?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp%20share-sheet&fbclid=IwAR39RIixSlzaSiCDdW-3JAooFlsb1_zEfbMrn2i2t9eIGF7V4QiPsry9cys
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