'It feels like a miracle to be alive after brain tumour'

A woman who was told she had "a week left to live" after being diagnosed with a brain tumour has donated the proceeds from her album to a Bristol hospital charity.

Harriet Annabelle Ward, 51, from Bristol, was taken to A&E after she started to struggle to speak. Doctors discovered a 10cm tumour and rushed her in for a 14-hour operation in 2021.

She said it was a miracle she survived and when she awoke from the surgery she felt inspired to sing again.

"I can't thank everybody enough... every day it feels like an absolute miracle to be here," she added.

Mrs Ward said the album - named Bristol Music World 2024 - was her way of saying "thank you".

She has now been back to the hospital to see the staff who saved her life and to hand them her £1,300 donation, which was raised from her album's sales.

Two years prior to her diagnosis, Mrs Ward, who goes under the artist name of Harriet Annabell, was thought to have suffered a minor stroke.

She was discharged from hospital but continued to suffer dizziness and headaches.

When she started to lose her speech she was readmitted and doctors found her tumour.

The singer said doctors told her she had "10 to 15 years worth of brain tumour growth".

The tumour "surrounded" the whole left side of her head.

She said: "They weren't sure if I would survive... it's a miracle that I'm singing and speaking well, I could have ended up in a wheelchair."

Dr Kathreena Kurian, a clinical doctor who diagnoses brain tumours at Southmead Hospital plans to use the money "to try and develop a simple, easy, cheap blood test to help GPs".

"When someone comes in with a headache they can send the test off and decide who to send for a scan," she said.

Some of the money will also go towards research on the risk factors of tumours because at present, doctors do not know why they develop.

The collaborative album, titled Bristol Music World 2024, launched at Bristol's The Mount Without and features more than 20 local artists.

Hannah Jones, community fundraising manager at the Southmead Hospital Charity said Mrs Wards' "fundraising will make a real difference to many people".

"Harriet was going through a really difficult time in her life and she managed to turn that into a positive," she said.