Despite a life changing diagnosis, Laure Macpherson has decided to remain positive and raise awareness of the condition through the power of social media
Last summer, Lauren Macpherson and her partner went for a long weekend getaway to London. It was a time to celebrate after a busy year of exams and home renovations.
But on their way home to Swansea a bizarre accident turned their lives upside down. They were travelling back when a suitcase that was being stored in the train’s overhead storage fell on her head. There were concerns at first that she had broken her neck, but doctors discovered something much worse.
After countless scans, the 29-year-old initially thought it was concussion, but doctors spotted a shadow on her brain scan. Lauren was called back in to the hospital where she was told that she had an incurable brain cancer and could have just 12 months to live.
Despite her life changing diagnosis, the woman from Swansea has decided to remain positive and raise awareness of the condition through the power of social media. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
When departing from London in September 2025, Lauren’s partner Zach placed their aluminium suitcase in the overhead storage. As the train moved, the case dismantled and fell on Lauren’s head from two metres high. Despite her remaining conscious throughout, there were concerns that she had broken her neck, so the train stopped in Swindon where an ambulance was called.
She was later taken to hospital where they explained it was just a bad concussion, and after a thorough brain scan she was sent home. Days after her injury, Lauren received a phone call from the hospital with concerns of a shadow that showed up on MRI after a second look by a consultant.
Despite the consultants attempt to reassure her, Lauren said: “As he said it I just knew, because I’ve been having all these symptoms building up, especially over the last two years, and it just clicked.”
Lauren had been experiencing extreme fatigue, bad memory, emotional dysregulation, stomach pain and headaches, all things that were mistaken for symptoms of her ADHD. She shared: “I would have such bad days where I literally couldn’t get out of bed. Like nobody would understand.”
She also had a seizure whilst on a trip to Paris several years ago, however her brain was never scanned and instead they put it down to her underlying heart condition instead.
After more scans and waiting several weeks for the results, the doctors discovered that the shadow on Lauren’s brain was a cancerous tumour and as well as a big cyst in the middle of her brain.
The cyst was not something to worry about, however they said that the cancer may mean she has two to three years left to live.
Lauren said: “I’ve gone into this consultation and the first thing they’ve said is, ‘oh not only have you got the brain tumour you’ve actually got this massive cyst which could be also quite scary,’ and then she went onto the brain tumour and she went ‘so obviously yours is an infiltrative incurable brain cancer.’
“Me being naïve, in my head, I thought of a tumour as a golf ball. So, you know, this golf ball is somewhere in my head and it’s only bad if it’s in an area where you can’t get it out, otherwise it’s just a solid mass that’s grown and whether that golf ball is cancerous or not is what you’ll find out from the biopsy when it’s removed.
“Mine is almost like a glass of water. It’s been poured in my brain and it’s splattered. So you can’t get it out because the infiltration. So, you can see where the main bits are, but where it’s spread and splattered, you can’t get those bits out because you’re talking about individual cells. So that is why mine is infiltrated, and that’s the type I’ve got. It’s called a glioma.”
At this point, the consultant couldn’t guarantee what grade the cancer was until the biopsy. They told Lauren that they didn’t think it was a glioblastoma, although they weren’t sure what grade the cancer was. If it was grade two or three, she would be looking at two to three years, and if it was grade four she’d be looking at 12 to 18 months.
She said waiting was the hardest part: “It was like not knowing how bad it could be, because it all depends on the biopsy.
“It was just such a whirlwind. It just happened so fast, like one minute I’m in London and the next minute I am about to have brain surgery thinking I could be dead within two years.
“I can’t explain how fast it all happened, like you don’t even have time to process, but obviously I was scared because you know I can’t have this little time I’ve got to have more.
“I just kept saying, ‘just give me my 30s’, like I’ll be grateful for anything just as long as I get my thirties and it gives me time to just say goodbye and have a bit of a life. That’s all I could think about. I couldn’t think of anything else, it was just get through it, to get through my thirties and that is all. I couldn’t process two to three years.”
Due to long NHS waiting lists Lauren decided to use her partner’s private health insurance to speed up the biopsy.
Within two weeks she had a date for the surgery, and three weeks after that she had recovered and received the biopsy results. This revealed that she has a oligodendroglioma, which was thankfully the best case scenario as she was told that the average life expectancy of this kind of tumour is around 10 to 12 years.
She shared that only 5% of those who have brain cancer have this type, so she felt like “either way I’ve got an infiltrative brain tumour, but it’s so much better than what a lot of people have to deal with unfortunately.”
Despite the cancer being incurable, the woman from Swansea remains positive about her situation. Lauren shared that she is disappointed in the fact she will never get the all clear, but holds out hope for future developments.
She explained: “Right now, it is incurable. There is no remission. There’s no ‘you’ll be fine’. No I’m not gonna be fine, this will be what kills me. Right now I’m 29 and yeah I’ve got time but I’m still looking at being in my 40s and dying with brain cancer like that’s still really scary.
“Now, my mindset is more hopeful and positive, realistic even. Like for example I’ve just been approved for this new drug, and it’s only come out in the last two years, so this new drug has shown amazing kinds of data. That’s just one drug, and it’s completely changed people’s lives already.
“So, I think what could happen in the next ten years that could then take my chances of survival to 15 years and then it’s 20 years, and then before I know it I am living until I’m like 90.
“I mean like that is the hope, that even if it’s not curable, it’s pushed and pushed and pushed further away that you can almost live a pretty normal life. “
Since her operation Lauren has struggled to do every day tasks like reading and writing, but she is not letting that hold her back from living her life. In fact Lauren’s partner Zach proposed to her after she received her diagnosis. He was intenting to propose on a trip to Italy to celebrate her 30th birthday, but upon hearing the news Lauren’s now fiancee was devastased.
She shared: “I think I was kind of in survival mode whereas Zach just heard that essentially the love of his life has just been told she could be dead in 12 months. Like you know for him he just couldn’t cope.
“When he found out, and obviously with the surgery, because it was high risk, he just wanted to do it, because he wanted just to get married, like straight away. I think it was just his way of saying, ‘I’m here.’
“It was nice to have that, it’s just a bit more hope. It’s something to fight for.”
After receiving her diagnosis Lauren decided to start an Instagram page to tell her friends and family about her condition, she has since gone on to use the account which has almost 10k followers to raise awareness and funding for brain cancer.
Lauren has started a fundraiser where she will be walking 10k steps a day to raise money for Brain Tumour Research, where she has raised £2,199 on her Just Giving page.
On the page she says: “Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer – let that sink in! So let’s start fighting this horrible disease one step at a time and beat this together.”
She was shocked at the reaction to her social media posts , saying: “Everyone’s been super supportive, and to be honest I appreciate the support but everyone being kind has restored my faith in humanity a bit as well. How everyone has been so lovely and sometimes, it makes you realise how much you take things for granted, and then it’s not until people hear your story and they’re like ‘oh my god like it could be anyone you know’.
“It’s a good way of raising awareness as well. That’s the thing for me is like obviously the support is amazing but I don’t need the support as I’m going to get through this with my family and friends. What is amazing is people helping with the awareness stuff, like you know building that kind of community up as a whole, to help it grow and fundraise and you know help with the research.
“I’m trying to raise awareness, I think the more people that talk about it, about any disease and illness that needs to be researched, whatever it is, the better the outcome is for those people.” You can find Lauren’s Just Giving page here.
