Emotional Philippa Forrester reveals terrifying moment her teenage son had life-saving surgery after being diagnosed with a brain tumour
The 49-year-old appeared on today's This Morning to talk about her family's difficult few months
EMOTIONAL Philippa Forrester has revealed the terrifying moment a doctor said her teenage son probably wouldn't survive his brain tumour.
The presenter appeared on today's This Morning to talk about the symptoms that led up to Fred's diagnosis.
She recalled: "I asked 'are we going to lose him?' and [the doctor] said 'I think you are'."
Philippa, 49, explained how she noticed a change in Fred, then 15, when the family first moved to Wyoming in America back in 2016.
She said: "He was struggling to organise himself, struggling to concentrate, but teachers were saying he's such a nice person and he has such a great attitude, we don't get it."
The star said he was tired all the time, but people were putting it down to him being a teenager.
Fred started to be woken up by headaches and started to vomit some days but the doctors thought it was a migraine.
A few months later Fred mentioned his vision was a bit blurred, and an eye test then revealed he needed an MRI scan.
After he had it, Fred suffered his first seizure and he was rushed to the emergency unit where the family were dealt the devastating news.
Philippa said: "They sat us down and said your boy is really sick."
Tearing up at the thought, she recalled how the doctor said to look at a scan of his brain, adding: "He didn't need to say anything else, it was obvious."
Fred had a six by four by centimetre tumour and the diagnosis was not good.
She said: "I asked 'are we going to lose him?' and he said 'I think you are'."
But thankfully for Philippa and her family, Fred had surgery to remove the tumour and doctors were able to get it all out.
But the presenter admits it was a tough four hour wait first to see what the outcome would be.
Admitting she "crumbled", Philippa said: "Are we going to get Fred back ever? Is he going to be the same person? What are they going to find? Will it all come out?"
While the tumour could reappear in the future, Fred has regular scans and Philippa says 18 months on, he's doing "better and better".
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