I reported on a woman’s terminal illness to raise awareness for a good cause

Essex mum’s ‘niggling headaches’ were actually a terminal brain tumour

Story link: This Essex mum’s ‘niggling headaches’ were actually a terminal brain tumour

How I found the story:

Back on February 24, 2019 the below tweet caught my eye. A quick google search revealed a Facebook page, with over 1,000 members, and a JustGiving page, with over £65,000 in donations, dedicated to ‘Help Bec Beat Brain Cancer’. Through my investigative work I found out more about Rebecca’s journey and, in doing so, I discovered that she lived in East Tilbury.

Please download our free app to help Becs fight against cancer. Available on iTunes and Google Play x

Bec's Fight not Flight https://t.co/DsIR4tnHPz

— Becs-Fight (@becs_fight) February 24, 2019

How I developed the story:

After finding out Rebecca lived in Essex, I sent a direct message to the ‘Becs-Fight’ Twitter account, which was managed by her sister Ruth. I liaised with Ruth and we arranged a telephone interview with Rebecca for the following week. Due to Rebecca felling unwell following treatment she was undergoing at the time, we rescheduled the interview for a few days later. Based on the public interest in her journey at that stage, by way of Facebook following and donations, I knew the story would do well, so would be worth the wait.

Initially, I thought the free app that was made to raise money for her treatment was an interesting angle for the story. However, after chatting with Rebecca on the phone it was clear there was a stronger line to lead with.

‘Niggling headaches’ are something that most people would class as fairly normal, and some may even describe as harmless. However, for Rebecca they turned out to be far more sinister than she originally thought. The fact that headaches are so common makes the story relatable to our readers, who may have never imagined a headache could be linked to a terminal brain tumour.

How well it did on our site:

The story had 9,165 page views, 171 from Australia, 86 from Canada and Spain and the remainder from the UK. It had an average engagement time of one minute 35 seconds. On Facebook it reached over 21,000 people and had almost 3,000 engagements, it was also shared almost 200 times.