‘Bubbly’ Rosie, 5, given months to live after headaches and ‘slow eye’ were treated with new glasses

WHEN “bubbly” Rosie Hassall started complaining of pain in her forehead in November 2024, doctors thought it was down to eye problems and prescribed her new glasses. Until then, her parents – Charlotte, 36, and Stefan, 37 – believed the tot was just having headaches and gave her Calpol to cope. SWNS Rosie experienced extreme headaches and eye problems in November 2024[/caption] PA Real Life She had a 6cm brain tumour the size of a kiwi, compressing her brain[/caption] But the pain kept coming back. Between her first and second GP visits that month, Rosie endured 27 episodes of head pain, often so bad she would roll around the floor in agony. During dinner one evening, the five-year-old from Shavington, Cheshire, announced: “Mummy, look what I can do” and went cross-eyed – but her left eye “pinged outward”. An optician found nothing wrong, but later an eye test suggested possible nerve damage. Rosie was eventually referred for an MRI scan. On December 22, 2024, just

  General   Oct 9, 2025   0   4  Add to Reading List
‘Bubbly’ Rosie, 5, given months to live after headaches and ‘slow eye’ were treated with new glasses

WHEN “bubbly” Rosie Hassall started complaining of pain in her forehead in November 2024, doctors thought it was down to eye problems and prescribed her new glasses.

Until then, her parents – Charlotte, 36, and Stefan, 37 – believed the tot was just having headaches and gave her Calpol to cope.

Rosie Hassall in a colorful dress giving two thumbs up.
SWNS
Rosie experienced extreme headaches and eye problems in November 2024[/caption]
A young girl with pink hair sleeping on a bed, with a half-eaten sausage roll in her hand.
PA Real Life
She had a 6cm brain tumour the size of a kiwi, compressing her brain[/caption]

But the pain kept coming back. Between her first and second GP visits that month, Rosie endured 27 episodes of head pain, often so bad she would roll around the floor in agony.

During dinner one evening, the five-year-old from Shavington, Cheshire, announced: “Mummy, look what I can do” and went cross-eyed – but her left eye “pinged outward”.

An optician found nothing wrong, but later an eye test suggested possible nerve damage. Rosie was eventually referred for an MRI scan.

On December 22, 2024, just three days before Christmas, the family received the devastating call that Rosie had a 6cm brain tumour the size of a kiwi, compressing her brain.

A biopsy on December 27 confirmed it was cancerous.

Doctors told the family the tumour was a paediatric bithalamic glioma – so rare Alder Hey Children’s Hospital had seen only three other cases – and that it was inoperable and aggressive.

Rosie was given an average prognosis of just nine to 12 months. Charlotte said: “I think, in that moment, I was still in denial.

“Apart from the pain, Rosie was just a normal little girl, full of attitude and life.”

Treatment began at The Christie Hospital in Manchester on February 26, 2025, where Rosie started daily oral chemotherapy and weekday radiotherapy under general anaesthetic.

The regime has left her tired, with hair loss and swelling from steroids, but eased some of her headaches.

Speaking to the BBC, Dad Stefan said: “Obviously it’s not a normal situation, but when she gets the chance to be a little girl, we let her be a little girl.”

Despite the bleak outlook, her parents refuse to give up hope.

Charlotte said: “Rosie is a fighter, we can see how much she has fought since she’s had this and I’m hoping that she proves them wrong and they can learn off her.”

The couple are now supporting Brain Tumour Research and have raised more than £40,000 to help them take time off work and provide 24-hour care for their daughter.

Also speaking to the BBC, Charlotte said: “The love and the support has just been on another level

“I will fight for her – we’ll both fight for her.”

Rosie Hassall in a hospital bed, smiling with cream on her arms.
SWNS
The tumour was inoperable and aggressive[/caption]
Rosie Hassall in hospital.
SWNS
Rosie started daily oral chemotherapy and weekday radiotherapy under general anaesthetic[/caption]
Rosie Hassall, a young girl, gives two thumbs up while in a hospital bed.
SWNS
Despite the bleak outlook, her parents refuse to give up hope[/caption]
Rosie, a girl with pink hair, eating a dessert in a hospital bed.
PA Real Life
‘I will fight for her – we’ll both fight for her,’ mum Charlotte says[/caption]

The most common symptoms of a brain tumour

More than 12,000 Brits are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year — of which around half are cancerous — with 5,300 losing their lives.

The disease is the most deadly cancer in children and adults aged under 40, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.

Brain tumours reduce life expectancies by an average of 27 years, with just 12 per cent of adults surviving five years after diagnosis.

There are two main types, with non-cancerous benign tumours growing more slowly and being less likely to return after treatment.

Cancerous malignant brain tumours can either start in the brain or spread there from elsewhere in the body and are more likely to return.

Brain tumours can cause headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting and memory problems, according to the NHS.

They can also lead to changes in personality weakness or paralysis on one side of the problem and problems with speech or vision.

The nine most common symptoms are:

  1. Headaches
  2. Seizures
  3. Feeling sick
  4. Being sick
  5. Memory problems
  6. Change in personality
  7. Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
  8. Vision problems
  9. Speech problems

If you are suffering any of these symptoms, particularly a headache that feels different from the ones you normally get, you should visit your GP.

Source: NHS

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