A ROUTINE eye test saved a teenager from a potentially fatal brain tumour.

Alicia Littlepage had been experiencing crippling headaches and problems with her sight for four weeks during the summer.

She went to the accident and emergency department at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester and visited her GP twice but medics believed the problem was down to a migraine.

The 18-year-old from Bognor was advised by her GP to go and have an eye test at the town’s branch of Specsavers opticians to try to find the cause of her symptoms.

She was seen by optometrist Basir Uddin, who detected a swelling on the optic nerve and told her to get immediate medical treatment.

Ms Littlepage said: “The last thing you expect after you’ve been to the opticians is to be going straight to hospital but soon after the test my mum was taking me to St Richard’s.”

An MRI scan revealed cyst-like matter on Ms Littlepage’s brain which was causing the build up of pressure behind her eyes.

She was sent straight to University Hospital in Southampton for an operation.

Ms Littlepage said: “After the doctors had taken a closer look at my scan they told me that I had a tumour right in the middle of my head which needed to be treated or operated on immediately.

“The surgeon said they would need to perform a biopsy and create a window to drain the fluid before they could tell whether the tumour was benign or malignant.”

Further tests revealed the tumour was benign and she was discharged from hospital after two days.

Ms Littlepage has spent the last month recovering at home and now has to have yearly scans to monitor the tumour.

She said: “The surgeon said there was a three per cent chance the tumour could become malignant and would require radiotherapy to treat.

“However he added that many people go through the rest of their lives with a benign tumour.”

Ms Littlepage is aiming to start a new job at a pharmaceutical company in November.

She said she was “incredibly grateful” to Mr Uddin for his support and help.