She can't read any letters during vision test: Teacher suddenly discovers she has brain tumor

A teacher was unable to read a single letter during her eye test and underwent further tests to find out the cause (illustrative photo). NomadSoul1 – ENVATO ELEMENTS

A teacher in the UK has been diagnosed with a brain tumour after being unable to read a single letter during her eye test.

She lost her father in 2018 after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma – an aggressive type of brain tumour – in February of that year.

In 2023, Gemma Hillier, a 45-year-old British woman, went to her optician for a standard eye test and had trouble reading the letters in front of her, reports The New York Post Sunday, January 5, 2025.

“I thought I had good vision”

Her optician referred her to an eye clinic where she had an MRI. The results are in: the Northampton teacher has a brain tumor.

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“It's crazy to know that I'm walking around with a brain tumour. […] When I sat down in the chair I couldn't read any letters, which was strange because I thought I had good vision.”

“It could have been a lot worse”

She underwent surgery in February 2024 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. “I know I'm one of the lucky ones. It could have been a lot worse – like my dad,” she told The NYP.

According to the British charity The Brain Tumour Charity, quoted by the American daily, meningiomas are relatively common, representing “27% of all diagnosed brain tumors”.

What symptoms ?

Headaches are the most common symptom, regardless of the type of brain tumor, emphasizes the ARC foundation for cancer research: “They often occur in the morning, sometimes accompanied by nausea and/or vomiting. They are due to the mass of the tumor compressing the region where it is located. Some patients also experience convulsions or epileptic seizures, sometimes from the very early stages of the disease or later. They may or may not be accompanied by a loss of consciousness. They are often the starting point for diagnosis.”