Allana P. Says Ringing Aud’s Chime Was “Magical” After Proton Therapy for a Brain Tumor
Share:
Allana P. was 16 years old when she was treated for a brain tumor with surgery at her home in England followed by proton therapy at the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute in 2016. Now, 10 years later, she remembers the warmth, kindness and best friends she made during what she calls her “radiation vacation.”
Speaker Rich Jones
Allana Prosser lives in the West Midlands, England. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2015. Her optician found a mass behind her eye, urged her to go to the hospital.
Speaker Allana Prosser
So, I was admitted straight to the hospital and the next day I was in for my first surgery. That was to remove the fluid on the brain and then a week later I had a second surgery which was to remove as much tumor as they possibly could.
Speaker Rich Jones
The tumor shrank from the size of a large grapefruit to a small orange, but that was not the end of her journey.
Speaker Allana Prosser
So, they did say I would come out, I wouldn't know who my family was, I wouldn't know anything, I'd be completely brain damaged but luckily I wasn't and then it was just a case of they were going to do radiotherapy locally but obviously that would have damaged around the other brains and everything else. So that was then we were given the option about going to Jacksonville.
Speaker Rich Jones
A place neither she nor her mom, Katrina, had ever heard of. They arrived in early January 2016, along with her one-year-old sister, and had an amazing experience.
Speaker Allana Prosser
Yeah, I think in the back of my mind I was hoping, you know, I might be able to go to Disney and places like that. I didn't think we could, but we did. We did everything. I always called it my radiation vacation.
Speaker Rich Jones
Treatment was five days a week and she vividly remembers environment, the technology, and the mask that held her still.
Speaker Allana Prosser
So, I keep it. In fact, I'm just thinking, we've just moved recently. I did, I spray painted mine pink and I'm planning on putting it on the wall and putting lots of flowers on it and things.
Speaker Rich Jones
She made her best friends during the experience in Jacksonville. And after her last treatment, Allana, her friends, doctors, mom, sister, grandparents, all were there to watch her ring Aud’s chime.
Speaker Allana Prosser
Magical, I think, if anything. Yeah, magical. Do it nice and hard and make sure everyone hears ya’.
Speaker Rich Jones
And for her mom?
Speaker Allana’s Mom Katrina
It was obviously one of the worst times of our life that we had to go through, but it was just, it was the best because we met so many amazing people. And like Allana said, they are like really, they're like family.
Speaker Rich Jones
Rich Jones, 104.5 WOKV.
