'I was misdiagnosed as mentally ill until doctors learned terrifying truth a year later'
EXCLUSIVE: Sarah-Jane Doherty's symptoms were put down to ill mental health, but after a year of being misdiagnosed doctors finally figured out exactly what was wrong with the 24-year-old
A young woman who was misdiagnosed as being severely mentally unwell for one year has said it took GPs, medical professionals and opticians months to find out what was really wrong with her. Sarah-Jane Doherty, 24, from Doncaster in Yorkshire, first noticed she was ill in July 2025 when she found herself being overly exhausted, to the point where she could not stand up for long periods of time.
Other symptoms included depressive episodes, psychosis, hallucinations, manic episodes, and issues with her mood being up and down, which led professionals to believe she was displaying symptoms of bipolar disorder. The 24-year-old was put under the care of secondary mental health services and placed on anti-psychotic medication.
Sarah-Jane said: "They said that they would put me on an antipsychotic, and my symptoms still weren't resolving. In fact, some of them are getting worse.
"They said that they thought that my hallucinations were mood congruence, so they were associated with my mood, which was why they weren't responding to typical antipsychotic treatment. I think when that was said to me, I was a bit deflated."
Bipolar misdiagnosis and dismissed vision problems
During this time, Sarah-Jane also had issues with her vision, including seeing floaters and noticing she was squinting at her computer screen - despite having her glasses on. After visiting her optician, Sarah-Jane said they advised her to get new glasses due to rapid vision decline and the presence of floaters.
But on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Sarah-Jane was taken to A&E after experiencing a severe headache that left her in so much pain after 60 seconds that she was sobbing on her bed. She also was having the feeling of electric shocks running down her left arm.
She said: "I went from not having a headache at all to crying because I was in that much pain. And I rang my mum, and my mum came down straight away, and I was just absolutely inconsolable.
"I couldn't put my head up, just lying face down on my bed because nothing was helping. I took co-codamol, which eventually relieved it and then I carried on getting ready and went out with my friends."
From then on Sarah continued to feel unwell for several days before going to urgent treatment at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, and being taken through to A&E for a CT scan on her head.
CT and MRI scan results change Sarah-Jane's life forever
After the CT scan brought up what doctors initially thought was a bleed on her brain, Sarah was taken for an MRI scan and placed onto a ward. The next morning, Sarah-Jane's life changed forever after being told she had a brain tumour around the size of a golf ball.
She said: "They told me in a bay of four people by myself that I had a brain tumour, and that they think is a glioma. I was just distraught, I was absolutely hysterical.
"I rang my mum straight away, and she came into the hospital. She rang my dad and he came home from work to see me. I feel a bit like I'm in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, like it just doesn't feel like it's actually me.
"I was upset, I was stressed thinking, 'what if it's not removable?' I didn't know what grade it was. What if it's spread somewhere else in my body? And I just had so many what-ifs in my mind that I just kept crying."
Sarah-Jane went through a number of other tests including a lumbar puncture and a full body CT before being referred to Royal Hallamshire Hospital under the neurosurgery department where she was diagnosed with a suspected Grade 2 Glioma.
Understanding grade 2 gliomas and how symptoms were missed
Grade 2 gliomas are slow-growing, infiltrative brain tumours that often affect younger adults. Although, Sarah will not know what grade her glioma is until a biopsy is taken from the tumour during brain surgery.
She was also told that the antipsychotic medication she was taking was masking a number of her main symptoms, such as the electric shocks she was feeling down her left side, which would have presented as seizures if she was not on the tablets.
Sarah-Jane's next steps include undergoing major brain surgery for between four and 12 hours, where for a large portion of the procedure she will be awake under a light sedation.
Sarah said: "They gave me loads of leaflets and there's a massive list of complications, which is just so scary. I'm just praying that none of them occur, but it's brain surgery so it obviously is risky in itself.
"They said, hopefully they can get it all, but they won't know for sure whether it's grade two or a grade three until they take a biopsy when they remove it.
"And if it does turn out to be grade three and it's gone further, then it's most likely radio and chemotherapy, but hopefully it doesn't come to that. My family's heartbroken, they're distraught, but they're staying strong as well as they can be.
"We're just trying to spend a lot of time together as a family, but it brought us even closer if that makes sense. My dad keeps crying, my mum keeps crying.
"I hear them cry when I'm not in rooms because they're trying not to, they're trying to be brave for me in front of me. My sister lives in London, she's come home to stay with me."
Raising brain tumour awareness and pushing for a second opinion
After being told about her brain tumour, Sarah-Jane started posting what she was going through on TikTok to help people in similar situations and also raise awareness about the symptoms she had so they are not missed in other people.
She said: "I didn't know anybody my age who'd had a brain tumour. I posted and then obviously a lot of people started viewing it, and it's kind of inspired me to keep posting because I've got a lot of comments from people going through similar things who didn't know who to talk to about it.
"It's not normal to feel ill all the time, and we put this aside and blame things like work for not wanting to go to the doctors, but you're the most important thing and it's important to put yourself first.
"Push for a second opinion if there is any chance that you think something is wrong. You have the right to a second opinion, if somebody is experiencing new symptoms, it can't be put down to your mental health."
For any help or support whether you've been diagnosed with a brain tumour or a family member or friend has, you can call The Brain Tumour Charity on 0808 800 0004.
