Woman Told She Has ‘Three Weeks to Live’ Due to Brain Tumors Outlives Prognosis by Years: ‘I Appreciate the Little Days’

Breast cancer survivor Julie Swallow, 56, initially chalked up her exhaustion to being overworked. But when she began experiencing pins and needles in her leg in 2021, her friends told her to seek medical care — even though she “genuinely” thought it was “ridiculous” to go to the doctor, according to The Daily Mail.

Swallow, who hails from the English county of Cambridgeshire, said she called the urgent care line and was advised to go straight to the hospital. 

After scans were performed, she says, “I was taken to the waiting room, and a nurse told me that they’re keeping me there. A doctor told me that I probably have got about three weeks to live, and to tell my husband and family.”

Tests had discovered two tumors in the center of her brain, and that they’d likely metastasized from Swallow’s recent bout with breast cancer. She was prescribed monthly drug injections and scans to monitor the tumors — but was told chemotherapy wouldn’t work. 

Since then, two more tumors have been discovered. One was treated with radiation, and the other was removed surgically. While Swallow struggles with walking since the procedure, she still has a positive attitude. “Because I have lived longer than anticipated, and I am still here going strong, I appreciate the little days.”

“I take more time than most people to appreciate the little stuff, a text message from a friend, someone visiting, or the blossom on the trees. There is something good in every day, and I just look for that,” she said. “I have two choices, I can get busy living, or I can get busy dying — I am going to be busy no matter what. It will catch up with me eventually, but in the meantime, I take every day as it comes.”

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