Teaching assistant with tumour inspires school

The Redway School took part in a Wear A Hat Day fundraiser for a second year

A specialist teaching assistant who was diagnosed with a brain tumour has inspired staff and pupils to wear their favourite hats to raise money for a cancer charity.

Kirsty Connell, 39, from Northamptonshire, was diagnosed with a grade 2 oligodendroglioma in 2021 after having headaches and feelings of déjà vu.

The Redway School where she works in Netherfield, Milton Keynes, celebrated its second Wear A Hat Day, an annual fundraising event run by Brain Tumour Research.

The day aims to raise money to help find a cure for brain tumours.

Mrs Connell, from Old Stratford, went to her doctor after experiencing a new pattern of headaches

The mum-of-three, whose grandmother died from a brain tumour, said she was supporting Brain Tumour Research "because of the shocking underinvestment in research".

She added that she wanted to raise awareness of how prevalent brain tumours were "because they’re the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40”.

'Something wasn’t right'

Mrs Connell, from Old Stratford, near Milton Keynes, went to her doctor after experiencing a new pattern of headaches.

She had an MRI scan as a precaution and was sent to A&E "where I sat on my own waiting to see a doctor for three hours without knowing what was wrong".

"I knew something wasn’t right and that’s where I was told they’d found a mass on my brain,” said Mrs Connell.

She has since had an awake craniotomy and is being monitored with three-monthly scans.

The Redway School took part in a Wear A Hat Day fundraiser a day early to tie in with their end-of-term assembly.

Charlie Allsebrook, a community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said: “With one in three people knowing someone affected by a brain tumour, Kirsty’s story is, sadly, not unique.

"Brain tumours kill more women under 35 than breast cancer, more men under 70 than prostate cancer and more children than leukaemia. We’re determined to change that but we can’t do it alone.

"We’re really grateful to Kirsty and her colleagues and pupils at the Redway School for their support. Together we will find a cure.”