Paramedic and circus star, 30, is handed a shock diagnosis just weeks before a dream trip - after seeking help for one common niggling symptom

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Paramedic and circus performer Paige Footner faces daunting situations every day - but she experienced an entirely new kind of fear when her world was turned upside down in June.
She was meant to be jetting off on the trip of a lifetime, a whirlwind international adventure that would take the Adelaide-based star to the glittering stages of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the training halls of Quebec's elite circus schools.
Instead, the 30-year-old now finds herself facing a different journey - one of brain scans, hospital beds and the terrifying unknown.
Just weeks before she was set to board a plane to Scotland, Paige was dealt a devastating blow after doctors discovered a four-centimetre tumour growing inside her brain.
'I'd paid for everything on my credit card already,' Paige told FEMAIL. 'I have $13,000 to pay off from it - and I hadn't brought my travel insurance yet.'
Thinking she had a full bill of health, Paige was beyond excited to jet off on June 27 and participate in paid shows at her favourite performing arts showcase in Scotland.
'I was supposed to be there right now performing, then we found the brain tumour.'
Paige had been training hard too, working two shifts per week as a paramedic and honing her talents as one of Australia's best Cyr wheel performers the rest of the time.
'The circus is more than a full-time job,' she said. 'And because I'm 30, I'm considered old in circus, so I'm really trying to make it, and I just give it all I have.'
However, after gruelling long hours perfecting her talents, Paige felt something wasn't right.
It wasn't physical signs of distress that we're affecting her though. Paige had been living with a persistent sound in her ear, a condition known as tinnitus, for four years.
It was frustrating, but not alarming, and in her line of work as both a circus artist and paramedic, a few knocks to the head weren't unusual.
'I had unilateral pulsatile tinnitus in one ear. It wasn't ringing, it was more of a whooshing and pulsing in my ear,' she explained.
'I mentioned it to my GP, because it can be a sinister sign of something, and then they referred me to an ENT. Eventually it showed I had some damage to the nerves on the left side.'
Doctors suspected it was linked to a minor head injury during training. But out of caution, Paige finally booked an MRI scan on June 6.
That scan revealed something entirely unexpected: a brain tumour, sitting in her posterior right frontal lobe.
And what's more unsettling, the tumour had absolutely nothing to do with her ear symptoms.
'It was a completely incidental finding,' she said. 'The tumour was in the wrong spot to cause the tinnitus.
'Both neurosurgeons said I was so lucky, because the tumour isn't causing me any symptoms. So in a way, circus saved my life.'
Paige's tumour appears slow-growing, but its atypical structure had doctors concerned.
'Next I had PET scan, and they found no other tumors, but there still is now a question mark over what it is because of these atypical findings,' she said.
With some of the features looking irregular, there's a possibility it could be more serious than a standard meningioma.
Surgery for Paige is essential, and the full nature of the tumour - whether it's benign or malignant - won't be known until it's removed and biopsied.
'Meningiomas are benign. But there are three different grades of meningiomas, and you don't know the grade until it goes to the lab. That is better than a cancerous tumour though,' she explained.
From all if this, Paige's world shifted in an instant. Her shows were cancelled. Her flights, scheduled for Jun 27th, were immediately called off.
And her dreams of spinning across a global stage this year vanished overnight.
After her impending brain surgery, Paige won't be able to drive for six months, which means that she won't be able to work as a paramedic - a significant portion of her income.
'To lose that for six months is a huge stress, as well as losing my performing income and then having to pay back all of my overseas trip, and medical bills,' she said.
Initially, she didn't want anyone to know of her diagnosis.
'I felt vulnerable and scared and weak, and that's so far from how I normally see myself,' she said.
'In circus, I'm known for being incredibly brave. When you're facing scary tricks, you can overcome them with mental grit and determination. But this was different. There was nothing I could do to change the diagnosis, and that left me feeling so powerless.'
Paige told only her boss, asking him to keep the real reason for her absence private. However, he knew that sharing it would bring support and he convinced her to open up.
Going public with her diagnosis turned out to be a turning point. What began as a deeply isolating experience soon transformed into a moment of overwhelming connection and meaning.
'Before I told anyone, I was crying myself to sleep because I didn't know how I was going to survive the next six months financially. I was so stressed. And I was having really dark thoughts,' she said.
One of the most painful, she confessed, was realising how much of life she feared she might never get to experience.
'My first thought when they told me was, "I'm going to die, and I've never been in love". I've never had a boyfriend. Every little girl dreams of finding true love, and I just thought… that might never happen for me,' she said.
But the outpouring of love and support from her community helped Paige reframe the journey ahead.
'I didn't know how much of a difference I'd made in people's lives until now,' she said.
'For me, life is about being part of a community and making a positive impact in other people's lives. And I had no idea that I'd done that until I until this.
'I guess I've achieved my purpose in life.'