British mother dies of brain tumor after doctors misdiagnose her with depression

Cancer cells. (iStock)

A British mother misdiagnosed with depression reportedly died Sunday night after a brain tumor claimed her life.

Express.co.uk reported that 21-year-old Hollie Turner, of Essex, first went to the doctor’s office in April 2013 shortly after her 2-year-old daughter, Myah, was born. She reported feeling fatigued and thirsty, but inconclusive diabetes and thyroid tests led doctors to diagnose her with depression.

“[Turner] went in to see the doctors on a number of occasions, but they just kept sending her away with depression medication,” Turner’s mother, Sherrie Thompson, told the news website.

It wasn’t until December 2014 that Turner’s family had to rush her to the hospital for dehydration, when she received the correct diagnosis— a brain tumor. Six weeks later, doctors diagnosed her with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH), a rare form of cancer that causes tissue damage and the formation of lesions on the body. Express.co.uk reported that it affects about one in one million adults.

The news website reported that chemotherapy wasn’t enough to save Turner, whose friends described her as a “hilarious, loving and brilliant mother.”

"Throughout her illness, while she was suffering, she never once moaned about anything and would always put her family first,” Melissa Grover, 21, and Turner’s best friend, told Express.co.uk. "She was so brave and a huge inspiration to those who knew her.”

Grover, who is also the sister of Turner’s partner and Myah’s father, Joe Grover, said she knew Turner for 10 years.

“Her and my brother got together four years ago,” she told Express.co.uk. “Joe was so in love with her.”