THE mother of a teenage Pride of Andover award winner and brain tumour survivor is backing a campaign to raise awareness of the deadly disease.

Claire Rickards, mother of Rosie Rickards, has thrown herself behind the HeadSmart campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of childhood brain tumours.

The mother-of-two has personal experience of the devastating impact of the disease, after daughter Rosie was diagnosed with a brain tumour as an 11-year-old.

Rosie, now 15, battled through a months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as undergoing 10-hours of surgery to remove the deadly tumour.

However the teenager, who won a Pride of Andover award in 2014 for her courage, is now registered blind as a result.

Mrs Rickards believes that if her daughter had been diagnosed sooner she may still have her sight.

The visual merchandiser is therefore backing HeadSmart as a way of helping other youngsters like Rosie.

The campaign, run by The Brain Tumour Charity, has already helped cut the average diagnosis time for a childhood brain tumour in the UK from more than 13 weeks to 6.5 weeks.

However the charity has relaunched its campaign this month in the hope of driving the figure below four weeks.

Mrs Rickards said: “We know from our own experience how vital it is for doctors and parents to recognise when a child may have a brain tumour.

"I’m sure that if the GPs we saw had been more brain tumour aware, Rosie would have been diagnosed sooner and she may still have her sight.”

Talking about the family’s experience, she added: “Rosie had a terrible headache, sickness and kept fainting - she couldn’t walk by the time I got to the hospital."

"They did a CT scan and told us she had a tumour and we’re transferred to Southampton that night.

“The next few days was spent doing tests and scans.

"Then she had surgery and thankfully they managed to remove her whole tumour.”

As part of the new drive, the HeadSmart campaign is producing pocket-sized symptoms cards and a website, headsmart.org.uk, which lists the warning signs of a brain tumour in babies, children and teenagers.

These include vomiting, balance problems and unusual eye movements.

Newly-added symptoms, after a review of all the evidence showing the most common signs of childhood brain tumours, include increasing head circumference in under-fives and loss of vision across all age groups.

The new campaign also includes an icon, nicknamed Sam. 

Each of the 10 childhood brain tumour symptoms is represented by Sam in a different, easily-recognisable form.

Hayley Epps, campaign manager for The Brain Tumour Charity, said: “Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children in the UK – and we are so grateful to Rosie and her family for helping us to raise awareness.

"HeadSmart has two aims: to save lives and reduce long-term disability by bringing down childhood brain tumour diagnosis times.

“Relaunching the campaign will help us to achieve that goal by alerting more healthcare professionals, parents and young people to the signs and symptoms of the disease.”

Professor David Walker, co-director of The Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre, said: “Since developing and launching HeadSmart, we have made real progress, halving the time it takes on average to diagnose a child with a brain tumour across the UK.

“This relaunch of the HeadSmart campaign uses new evidence, justifying a new approach to health professionals, young people and parents of young people.”

For more information on the campaign, click here