A young care worker who is living with a brain tumour has been crowned Miss Norfolk.

Elisha Hudson, aged 24, from Cromer, has now set her sights on a career in fashion modelling and hopes that the title will help her to raise awareness of the disease.

Originally diagnosed with ME, a neurological condition which causes extreme fatigue, Elisha was finally given the shock news that she had a brain tumour late last year. A low-grade glioma, close to her optic nerve, it is inoperable as surgery runs a high risk of leaving her blind or inducing a stroke or seizures. She was also told there is no treatment at this stage and is doing her best to remain positive and get on with her life as she waits for scans every six months to see if the tumour has changed.

Elisha said: “I am doing my very best to get on with my life. The tumour is most likely to grow at some stage but no-one knows when or to what extent. I feel as if I have a heavy weight on my shoulders but the diagnosis has definitely changed the way I live my life.

“There is a lot more I want to do and I just feel I should get on with it. I was so shocked to be crowned Miss Norfolk and it has given me the confidence to do more. I would never have dreamt of doing a catwalk before but, after my initial nerves, I loved it. Now I want to do more and am looking to see if I can pursue a career as a fashion model and to use that platform to help raise awareness of brain tumours.

“One of the hardest things I have discovered about having a brain tumour is that it is a hidden illness. Apart from headaches, I have had no symptoms and no-one can tell from looking at me that I have this thing in my head. I would like more people to understand that and I feel privileged to think that I can help others by sharing my story and raising awareness.”

Elisha is working with the charity Brain Tumour Research and has raised more than £2,500 which is almost enough to fund a day of the vital research which is taking place at a network of Centres of Excellence where scientists are focused on finding better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

Paula Rastrick, Community Fundraising Manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We are enormously grateful to Elisha for everything she is doing in order to help raise awareness. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer … yet just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.”

To make a donation to Brain Tumour Research via Elisha’s JustGiving page go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/elisha-hudson1

For further information, please contact:
Susan Castle-Smith at Brain Tumour Research on 01908 867206 or 07887 241639 or susan@braintumourresearch.org

Notes to Editors

Brain Tumour Research is the only national charity in the UK focused on funding sustainable research to find a cure for brain tumours. We are building a game-changing network of world-class Research Centres of Excellence in the UK. Embracing passionate member charities nationwide, £5.5 million was raised towards research and support during 2016.

We are campaigning to see the national spend on research into brain tumours increased to £30 - £35 million a year, in line with breast cancer and leukaemia. The charity is celebrating a year of high-profile campaigning on this issue following the unprecedented success of its petition in 2016. Following that, Brain Tumour Research is now taking a leading role in the Government’s Task and Finish Working Group convened to tackle the historic underfunding for research.

Key statistics on brain tumours:

• Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer
• They kill more children than leukaemia
• They kill more men under 45 than prostate cancer
• They kill more women under 35 than breast cancer
• Just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease
• In the UK 16,000 people each year are diagnosed with a brain tumour
• Less than 20% of those diagnosed with a brain tumour survive beyond five years compared with an average of 50% across all cancers
• Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone, at any age
• Incidences of, and deaths from, brain tumours are increasing.

Please quote Brain Tumour Research as the source when using this information. Additional facts and statistics are available from our website including our latest Report on National Research Funding. We can also provide case-studies and research expertise for media.