Mason MacKenzie complained of headaches while at a routine optician appointment and mum Carly trusted her ‘gut feeling’, rushing the youngster to A&E where he was found to have a tumour
A mum has told how she listened to her “gut feeling” and took her exhausted son to the doctor – who found a tumour.
Mason MacKenzie, eight, went in for a routine eye test on January 4 of this year. Mum Carly, 27, told the optician her son had been suffering from headaches and was left tired and grump at the end of the day. While Carly was told to book a GP appointment she decided to go with her gut and took Mason to hospital.
An MRI just two days later revealed the eight-year-old had an early-stage, cancerous tumour on the left-hand side of his brain. The tumour, about the size of a grape, was caught by doctors who managed to remove it early. But it would have been a very different story had Carly not caught it so early, she said.
Carly explained: “So many people have asked me about Mason’s first signs and symptoms – but the truth is, he didn’t really have any. Because we managed to catch it early, Mason was strong when he went into surgery and had his treatment. But his doctors have said, if we’d waited just a couple of weeks longer, we’d be telling a very different story.”
While the optician told Carly to “keep an eye” on the minor headaches, believed to have been caused by a sensory overload triggering Mason’s autism spectrum disorder, alarm bells were already ringing for the domestic abuse practitioner. She added: “She told us to maybe keep an eye on it. I was told to flag it when I was next at the GP with Mason. To be honest, he had all the checks at the opticians – he was all healthy, all fine.
“We went to A&E, and they gave him some ibuprofen. They were just sending us on our way, when I thought I’d mention the optician.” Though the GP believed it was just Mason’s ASD, the doctor ordered a child-friendly MRI. Mason underwent the scan in March – and two days later, Carly received a call from Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and told to come in straight away.
She said: “A brain tumour didn’t cross my mind, I don’t even know what I was thinking. I phoned my mum, Amanda, and said: ‘You need to come with us.’ We picked Mason up from school – and because of his ASD, he was upset that this wasn’t part of the plan. To make things worse, we walked into the room and there were two strangers waiting for us.”
On March 20, 2024, doctors managed to successfully remove the entirety of Mason’s tumour – and eight days later, the family were told that it had been cancerous. Carly added: “He was really struggling for the first two days, but on day three, he took a huge turn for the better. By day five, we were discharged – after they predicted he’d need to be in for around two months.” Mason has since received six rounds of three types of chemotherapy across six months, which he completed in October.
The youngster will be in remission over Christmas and receive another scan after the festive break to see if there is another growth. She said: “He’ll be off treatment in November and December – then another scan after Christmas, to see if there’s another growth. I can’t lie to Mason and say he’ll never need treatment again, but it’s nice for him to be off now. I don’t like to say he’s cancer-free, but we’re seeing how this bit goes. During our end-of-treatment meeting, Mason’s oncologist said his optician’s appointment saved his life.
