Bishop's Stortford woman with brain tumour 'determined to live'

A 26-year-old woman with an incurable brain tumour says she is determined to live for as long as she can.

Paige Gouge, from Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, said her life was "flipped upside down" when she was diagnosed in December.

She has since had brain surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and IVF treatment to freeze her eggs.

"I know that with my amazing family and friends by my side I can get through this," she said.

"I am determined to do so for them."

Ms Gouge, who previously lived in Dunmow, in Essex, was diagnosed with a grade four tumour, called a glioblastoma multiforme.

The HR manager was referred to a neurologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge who discovered the tumour on her left frontal lobe.

She was diagnosed after suffering with headaches and seizures, which were initially attributed to her having a low iron count.

Her father died from the same brain tumour at the age of 38 in June 2000, when she was six years old.

Ms Gouge recently got engaged to her partner, Taylor Allen, who has been helping to research different medical options and the couple are now fundraising to pay for specialist treatment in Germany, which would cost about £100,000.

"As my tumour is grade four the doctors have said it is almost guaranteed to return and normally does so within the first couple of years," she said.

"Hearing this was extremely disheartening for my family and I."

Ms Gouge said she and her partner were exploring various treatment options.

"Taylor has been there to support me every day physically and emotionally, and he has been using all his free time to research further treatments," she said.

"He discovered one in Germany which could give me a second chance at life.

"It was the glimmer of hope that we all definitely needed."

Mr Allen said he was "incredibly proud" of his fiancée.

"Paige has handled this so well," he said.

"There are tough days and she sometimes cries, but she is very positive and she has given us so much strength by the way she has reacted to this."

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