June 24, 2026 | 31 mins

In this episode of Rewired Minds, Bri Salsman speaks with Angel Jones, founder of Brain Tumor Companion, about her personal journey with brain tumors and the creation of a supportive community for patients. They discuss the unique aspects of peer-to-peer support groups, the challenges faced in building the community, and the importance of fundraising for research. Angel shares her vision for the future of Brain Tumor Companion, emphasizing the need for greater awareness and support for all types of brain tumors.

Resources
Check out a list of the most common medical terms relating to the brain tumor experience: rewired-minds.com/terms
Connect with brain tumor organizations here: https://www.rewired-minds.com/braintumorresources

Connect with Rewired Minds
Website: rewired-minds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RewiredMindsPod
Instagram: @rewiredmindspod
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewiredminds

Connect with Brain Tumor Companion
Website: www.braintumorcompanion.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@braintumorcompanion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meningiomacompanion
Instagram: @braintumorcompanion
TikTok: @BTCompanion
Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=VBEYUB6M52XQG
Email: angel@braintumorcompanion.com
Text: 424-239-9366

Be a Guest
Interested in being a guest on a future episode? Visit rewired-minds.com/guest for more information and to submit your request.

Disclaimer
The stories shared here are personal accounts from the brain tumor community for informational and awareness purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals regarding your specific situation. Most importantly, take care of yourself as you listen and process.

Transcript
Bri (00:00)
I want to start this episode with deep gratitude. I recently looked at the trajectory of this podcast since it launched, and it has far exceeded what I thought it would be. I am humbled by how vulnerable you've been in sharing your stories, and I'm so grateful for your trust. I'm also so, so encouraged by the new connections being made between you and our guests. And I want to get your stories in the ears of those who need to hear them, which is why I'm asking for your help. Rating this podcast wherever you listen is a quick click for you, and it has a tremendous impact on getting in front of our community when they need connection, encouragement, and support. Would you be willing to give a five-star review to help us continue growing this community?

I really appreciate all the support you've given and can't wait to continue having incredible impact.

Also, have you been thinking about sharing your story? Wherever you are in your journey and whatever your relationship is to the brain tumor community, I'm looking for more guests for future episodes. Check out rewired-minds.com/guest to share your interest. Your story matters. Truly. It really, really does and I want to help you share it.

Bri (01:22)
I'm Bri Salsman, a brain tumor survivor and identity integration coach, and you're listening to Rewired Minds, a podcast that shares brain tumor stories that change us. Sometimes guests use medical terminology, so I've partnered with Northwestern Medicine Malnati Brain Tumor Institute to provide definitions of common terms. You can find the full list in the show notes. Most importantly, take care of yourself as you listen and process.

Bri (01:46)
Today, I'm spotlighting Brain Tumor Companion. Brain Tumor Companion empowers the brain tumor community through peer-to-peer support, patient advocacy, education, and action. Patient-led and community driven, they amplify awareness, nurture meaningful connections and fuel groundbreaking research supporting the teams our community believes are driving the most meaningful progress against all types of brain tumors. Joining me to share more is Angel Jones, who is the founder of Brain Tumor Companions and support group leader. Welcome Angel, I'm so glad you're here.

Angel Jones (02:20)
I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for considering Brain Tumor Companion.

Bri (02:24)
Absolutely. It was, no pun intended, but it was a no brainer when I met you at a national conference and learned about what you were doing. It is different from other organizations that I see out there. I think namely what caught my attention, of course, you're doing the fundraising, you're doing a lot of the things that other organizations are doing, but that primary focus is that peer-to-peer support piece. You've supported hundreds of members over the time, which I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, but that's just a little peek at why I wanted to connect with you and spotlight Brain Tumor Companion.

Angel Jones (03:01)
Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here to share a little bit about our community and why it's different and unique and so special. So thank you very much.

Bri (03:10)
Let's kind of start at the beginning. I guess there's no better place to start, right? How did this idea come to life? What's your connection to the brain tumor community?

Angel Jones (03:21)
I'm a survivor. A little over 13 years ago, I had a car accident where I was rear-ended in Los Angeles and had a really bad concussion and that's when this was discovered.

I was diagnosed with a little pea-sized meningioma and I was on watch and wait for a little over six years. And I was very naive to the condition back then. I just kind of went by what the neurologist had told me and figured it's no big deal. It's like a little pimple inside my brain. A lot of people have these and I really just tried to live my life and not think about it because that's really what I was advised to do. And they told me I might live with this for, you know, 20, 30 more years before we ever have to even worry about it. So although it was worrisome, I really did just choose to kind of live my life and do follow up MRIs and just, you know, not let it consume me.

Fast forward six years later, it became problematic. My tumor grew into the SSS vein. And they basically said it has to come out. This is actually pretty, you know, urgent and we don't want it latching onto that for too long. And so you got about three to six months to figure this out. And so instantly was planning a craniotomy and met with four neurosurgeons in the Los Angeles area. I happened to work at USC at the time. And so I did have access to some really good doctors, which was wonderful.

So without that car accident, I'm not sure I really would have known this. I probably would have never had a reason to find this. You know, in many ways I resented that car accident and also in many ways I'm really grateful for it because I never did have a single symptom with my tumor.

I was living a perfectly fine life. I had no deficits or symptoms or anything going on. I did recover very well. It was a textbook recovery. I was super excited to have it behind me and get back to life. And I thought, thank goodness this is over.

And in the process of recovery, which anyone who's had a craniotomy knows, it is very slow going. There's a lot that they don't tell you. There's very little support. And as long as you can walk and talk and you remember who you are and you can sort of get back to life, you're fine. But there was a lot of me that didn't feel fine. And although I wanted to be fine for everyone I knew and love and give back to my life and put this behind me, there was a huge missing and I couldn't really pinpoint what it was. But slowly and surely I realized it was just community and I needed more education and I needed more support and I needed more just kind of, you know, companionship. I wanted a hug. Everyone's like, oh you're such a warrior. You're so strong. I'm like, I didn't ask for this. I didn't want to be strong. Like I had to do this. I didn't have a choice.

Bri (06:08)
Gosh, I say that so often myself. I want to do a whole episode on the language that we use around this. That's in the back of my mind trying to figure out how to make that happen. So if anybody out there is listening has ideas or knows someone who'd be great for that conversation, I'm open to it. But I feel very similarly about warrior language and things like that.

Angel Jones (06:28)
Yeah, I earned my stripes, no doubt, right? But no, I wouldn't want to be in this club at all ever if I had a choice. Wo that was kind of the beginning of it. And it really started small. I was in a lot of social media pages making relationships kind of one-on-one with people on conversations, just trying to find, again, community. It was really the only resource I had.

And my surgery was in December of 2018. You know, I spent the 12 to 18 months just kind of figuring out how I was going to be living life as opposed to craniotomy patient. And it really became clear to me that this is a lifelong journey and that these have a higher recurrence rate and I will be forever getting MRIs. And so all of that was really sinking in. So by September, 2020, I launched my first brain tumor support group and there was just maybe five or six of us. And that was the start of something really beautiful that just continued to grow. And here I am today.

Bri (07:28)
I love that so much. Many people, and this isn't good or bad or right or wrong, but many people, in similar situations to your own, might choose to go look for other organizations who offer support groups or volunteer at other organizations or find things that already exist to get involved with. What made you want to go out on your own and create something from scratch?

Angel Jones (07:51)
Well, part of it was the pandemic issue, right? So people weren't getting together in person and having support groups. The other part of it was I couldn't find anything. I mean, there really wasn't anything that seemed to fit what it was that I needed. I've done talk therapy before. I have joined other support groups before that are often led by therapists or social workers, and that's fine. And there's a place for that. And I love that. And I love that for me. And I've needed it. But I really wanted that peer to peer connection that I just want to sit in a room and pow wow with people. And I don't want to feel like it's red taped or structured in a way that I'm going to get cut off or not have time to really speak and share my story. And I also didn't want to be cookie cuttered in a room where I was just with maybe one type of tumor or maybe in a room of everybody who had cancer and thought I was ridiculous for being there because I didn't.

Meningioma companion was the original name when I started this because I have a meningioma and so I just assumed everyone who might want to get together with me would also have a meningioma. But I quickly realized that, you know, with over a hundred different types of brain tumor diagnoses, like we're all in the same boat. We all hear those words, "you have a brain tumor” and life is forever changed. We don't know what kind it is. We don't know what journey we're going on. Is it cancer? Is it not? Do I need radiation, surgery, watch and wait, everything in between?

So I really just wanted to create a space that was organic, all inclusive, you know, was easy to attend from all around the world.

And it just really flourished and it was so beautiful from the start. It really was. It has been the best part of my journey for healing and for just educating myself and feeling like I've really wrapped my head around this in so many ways. The confidence level for me with this condition just went through the roof because I felt normal. I didn't feel like the weirdo in the room where like, I'm the one, my head is spinning from all of the noise around me and everyone else is just having a jolly time.

When I get in this room everybody gets that. They understand that overstimulation. They understand that neuro fatigue, that when you hit the wall, you're done. You gotta leave the party kind of thing.

Bri (10:04)
Right.

Angel (10:05)
And so it's just really, it has healed me in so many ways and I'm really grateful that it's touching the lives of others as well.

Bri (10:10)
And you touched on this already in a couple different ways, but I want to double down and be really clear for listeners too. What makes your support group different from others they may have participated in or looked into or explored?

Angel Jones (10:32)
So the biggest thing I hear is just the heartfelt kind of community nature of it. When other support groups are more structured and they have 40 people in a room, I have a max of 12 people in my room. I don't ever allow more than 12 people to sign up. If I have a wait list, people will be on the wait list and can be shuffled in if people drop out. But otherwise, it is a very intimate room.

Additionally, it is two hours long and most support groups are around 60 to 90 minutes if you're lucky. If you've got 40 people in a room for 60 to 90 minutes, not everyone's really getting a chance to chat. I really do nurture the connection. Every leader does this kind of stuff differently, but I ask the hard questions and we go deep.

You know, you'd have to really join a group to kind of see it and understand it. But we really just get to the heart of all of the challenges and we feel, we cry, we laugh, we vent, we swear. We talk about intimacy and how it affects our relationships and why it's so lonely. And through the darkness, there's so much light.

I get people on their first day when they join for the first time and they very often are crying and they just feel so grateful and safe to have fallen into a room of people that they just immediately know understand what they're going through.

Seeing them come back and before you know it, their tears are turning into laughter and their worries are turning into confidence and education around what's going on. And then they start giving back to the community through everything that they've learned on this journey. And the transition of that is really so beautiful.

That's what was missing in everything that I could find out there. And if you don't have what you need, you create it. That's kind of always been my thought process.

Bri (12:10)
And not only have you created this amazing community through these peer-to-peer support groups, but you've also raised funds for research. What’s your approach to the fundraising side of the mission?

Angel Jones (12:36)
When I first started this, we had a beautiful member. Her name was Maki and she was a glioblastoma patient, a seven-year survivor. And one of her requests early on when I started these groups, she was like, I would really love to raise money for research. How do you think we can do this?

At the time, I was trying to figure it out for her. She loved to run 5K races. So we actually raised over 15,000 in a very short time for the first 5K that we participated in in Phoenix, Arizona for Head for the Cure. And we honored her there. And sadly, literally that was the last event that she went to. As soon as she made it home, she was on hospice and she's no longer with us.

But that really gave me the confidence and the drive to think, okay, Angel, you can do this. You can rally people, you can raise money for research, and you can also still do the great work you're doing in this kind peer-to-peer advocacy, patient-focused community.

So since then, each year we would work with a new institution or a team of people that we think are really making those powerful, meaningful differences out there in the world of brain tumor.

If you visit my research page on my website, you can see the specifics of who we've already collaborated with and how much money we've raised thus far for them. We look forward to raising money for even more wonderful institutions that are doing great work.

The challenge I think that we find is most of the research money is very cancer specific. And yet so many people in my Zoom room, you know, probably eight out of 10 of them on average are struggling with these benign, not fine brain tumors. And so where does kind of the effort go into our long-term care and process and education and support with all the doctors and things that we need and the fact that, you know, many people with meningiomas can't go back to work and they lose motor function or hearing or vision and all of these other things. And there's not a lot happening in that arena and I hope to someday change that.

Bri (14:41)
I think that's a really different take than what I have seen other organizations do as well. And not to say that one is better or worse, but we need support on all fronts, right? Like a lot of what I see is really geared towards the most aggressive brain tumor types. And that's good and useful in a particular way. And I think what you described just now is also good and useful in a different kind of way. We need all the different kinds of support to move the community forward as a whole. And so I love that you're taking a different approach to that side of things as well.

Of course, we like to think I had this experience and it showed me this gap or this need or I wasn't finding this thing and so I created it myself and it's grown and evolved and I've raised this money and it all sounds smooth and wonderful. But I know, I know because I am also a business owner I know that there have been challenges along the way. Right? And so I'm curious what has been one of those challenges either that you've overcome and how you overcame it or one that you're facing right now that listeners can help with.

Angel Jones (15:48)
There's been many challenges. I mean, you know, it's a real struggle to do this kind of work, because it's such a labor of love, right? And I have a full-time job outside of this, so I put in probably 15 to 20 hours a week just for this Brain Tumor Companion community. And the challenges are real.

The community is a whole, the brain tumor community, doesn't always quite understand what I stand for, what I mean, why am I doing this? You know, initially when I started, I always said that there will always be a free support group every single month and your first one will always be free to try. But if you really love this community and you support it, I do ask for a $10 save your seat fee for additional groups.

And I got a lot of heat from a lot of people about that because it was one of those things they thought, oh you're basically trying to take advantage of ill people. And I'm like, that's, that's absolutely not the case. Like I am a patient. I need this as well. And I also need to build something out of nothing. I don't just have endless funds to keep giving into a free something that may or may not make it. Right?

And so with the support of everybody who has believed in me along the way and all of the members that did join early on, I call them the OGs, I really hand it to them. I could name so many names that are just the most amazing people and they've really been like, we love this, we support this. And they never had an issue with paying that $10.

But for a lot of nonprofits who I would want to collaborate with or work with, I got really, really challenged. And they'd say, we can't work with you because you're not a licensed therapist, or we can't support what you do because you don't have as much structure. And so those are real challenges to get through in this field because I'm a patient trying to fill a void, trying to help others because I needed it and I know if I needed it and I fared well after surgery, right? I was textbook recovery. I was able to go back to work after three weeks, the gym after six weeks. I was driving. I was off seizure medications. Like I had a really good surgery and recovery and team and I still was lost. So if I felt that way, how many other people were really, really struggling?

So, you know, the challenge has really been proving my authenticity and kind of my mission and getting people to understand that I'm not just out here trying to create this to take advantage of people. That's absolutely not the case. I'm filling a void. I'm filling it for myself and for others.

And really the other challenge that I think is huge for me is getting people to talk about this condition. It's so in the dark. People do not want to be looked at differently. They do not wanna be judged for this. They are worried their work might let them go or their friends might see them different. They're worried about a lot of things and they just are very nervous to speak about it. And so really trying to get our community to build their muscles around it, right? To get confident with sharing their story, to make it part of their daily lives and not be ashamed of it because it is part of our daily lives and we didn't ask for this. So there's a lot of challenges in trying to get people to speak up and bring awareness. Our community can't thrive if we don't speak up.

Bri (19:09)
Yeah, yeah. Gosh, so much of what you shared resonates with me personally, but also just with the other conversations I've had with other guests as they, as they shared their story.

On the first challenge in terms of partnership and validity of what you're doing, I've run into similar roadblocks and trying to partner with organizations and similarly, you know, you're not a therapist or it needs to be structured or all of these things. I'm not going to be able to give credit to the right person because I have no idea where it started. But there's a quote that says, you can't say the right thing to the wrong person or the wrong thing to the right person. And I've kind of inherited that into my business as well.

I'm not going to charge the right price to the wrong person or charge the wrong price to the right person, or I'm not gonna partner in the wrong way with the right organization or the right way with the wrong organization or all of these kinds of things.

I don't know, a little mantra that has kind of helped me push past some of those things when I'm getting resistance or push back on things. But I genuinely believe that all the different iterations are needed because this isn't cookie cutter.

You said earlier, there are over a hundred different brain tumor types. We have so many questions more than answers. There's so much we don't know. This is such an invisible experience. And so there’s no way that one approach is going to address all the needs across our community. I think it's great that we have different organizations taking different approaches and doing different things. And I certainly would love for there to be more cross organizational collaboration. I think we'll go further that way.

And on the second challenge that you shared in terms of getting people comfortable to share their stories. I mean, that really has been the impetus to start this podcast in the first place. It took me a full year to even understand the seriousness of the situation that I had found myself in.

And then even beyond that, a year or two more before I felt like I could talk about it in a way that, I don't want sympathy. I don't want you to feel bad for me. I don't, I don't want to come across as whoa is me. And so navigating, like, how do I share my story that doesn't garner the reaction that I'm not looking for took even longer.

But when I finally got to that place where I started sharing a little bit here and a little bit there and experimenting and seeing the reactions and… If I say it this way, what kind of reaction does that garner? Oh that got sympathy and that's not what I'm trying to accomplish.

Over practice and evolution, I mean, you can put me on a stage in front of thousands of people and I will share my story and I'm happy about it. And, and it does something for me too, to feel like I have agency and ownership over an experience that feels very much out of my control. so I think it's incredibly powerful what you're doing on both of those fronts.

Angel Jones (21:44)
Thank you.

Bri (21:45)
We've talked about both the group side of things, the fundraising side of things, the impact and the challenges. When you look into the future, what do you envision for Brain Tumor Companions moving forward?

Angel Jones (22:10)
I would love to host more support groups. I do at least one a week, usually two. I always tell my community I like to start my Fridays with them and end my weekend on Sunday evenings with them.

I would like to do travel because I want to go to my people. And so many of the people that I know and love that I've met in these rooms are very limited, right? They can't drive, they haven't really been out of the house unless it's to go to doctor's appointments. And so I really do envision getting funded enough to get a mobile home. I would love to have that, slap my logo on it, hit the streets and literally go around the country and actually like knock on the door and meet these people and take them to lunch and do you know some interview time with them and really just capture everything that we have created as a community and share our stories. I think that would be very valuable. So that's kind of a fun pipeline dream.

Bri (23:02)
I don't think it's a pipeline dream at all. I bet there's someone out there listening that's like, my gosh, that's amazing. I want to support that and help move that needle in that direction.

I love how differently you think about the support that you're offering. I love this so much.

Angel Jones (23:05)
At the end of the day, we are the patient. We're going through this. We're living a journey in a life that a lot of people don't understand, but we all get it. And every time I've met a fellow brain tumor companion, it is the greatest feeling. It is absolutely the most wonderful feeling to meet these people in person and to hug and to share and to just have that sense of community. I have said many times in my support group that this creating this space has really restored my faith in humanity in so many ways, because as we all know, the world has been pretty crazy since the pandemic and it's sometimes really hard to make sense of any of it. And so to have all of that going on in the world and also be managing something pretty traumatic like a brain tumor diagnosis, it's just so nice to be able to have that level of community and compassion for each other. To basically go meet what would normally be a complete stranger in person. It feels very, very wonderful.

Additionally, I want for May Gray to be as beautiful as pink is for October. And I don't know what institution is willing to take it to that level, but I know in a very small way, I'm working very hard at it. The majority of my entire merchandise line is all gray, gray-black, gray-white, you know, kind of combinations.

May Gray Brain Tumor Awareness Month is for all tumors, right? It's not just for the cancer ones. It's like, hey, if 70 to 80 % of our population is struggling with a benign, you know, your fine tumor when we're not fine, where is our awareness? Like, where is our survivorship, our warriorship, whatever you want to call it, right? Like, where's our story? Where's our color?

And so for me, making a little bit more noise around that and getting people excited about May and energetic about sharing their stories in that month is really important to me. I literally design a new May Gray profile picture every single year. If you $10 donation or more, I will personally, make these photos for people and I send them to them so they can promote them on socials because I think it's important and that's our month. And if nobody else is doing it, I'm going to do it because we deserve to have that attention and that voice. And if dump trucks and sports teams and shoes and all these things can be pink in October, where is my end cap? Right? Like where is my story? And so maybe someday I can walk into a grocery store in May and see my merchandise at the end of one of the rows and profits can go to research. That kind of stuff is really important to me. And those are the big, big goals if I can get there.

Bri (25:55)
I just feel so torn about it all the time because, you know, we are a small and mighty community. Brain tumors are still categorized as a rare disease because there's so few of us. And that makes it challenging to get the type of attention that you're looking for.

It feels like the only way to get to the place of getting funding is for our community to grow. One way that that happens is that more people get the diagnosis, which certainly is not at all what I would want. I don't want any more diagnosis on this front.

But another path is galvanizing people who are not impacted by brain tumors to advocate on our behalf and to join arms with us and do this together. That's a much harder path, but I think we can do it. I really do. And I'm hopeful that the work that both of us are doing, that we bring people into our community that are not necessarily patients, survivors, caregivers, that the families and friends and then eventually complete strangers who have no direct connection are invested in this.

Angel Jones (27:03)
I hope for that too. I really do. And I continue to put a lot of time and effort into those arenas as well.

Bri (27:08)
Angel, how has doing this work rewired your mind?

Angel Jones (27:12)
Wow, well, again, restoring my faith in humanity that you really can just engage with complete strangers and essentially find a new family. I think that that is incredibly beautiful. And I'm just excited about it every day, literally. It moves me to continue to do this work.

Having a brain tumor in general rewired my mind just because I had to face my mortality. Nobody goes into a craniotomy and doesn't have the concern like, gosh, I hope I make it through this. So for all those reasons, I've just genuinely feel like a changed person. It's not necessarily better or worse. It's just different.

For me, finding this little special place of Brain Tumor Companion, I think is really uped my level of compassion. I've always been a compassionate person anyway. It's kind of how I was raised. But I really listen now. I listen more now than I ever have. And I think that it rewired my brain in the sense that, I don't just hear a person's story and then forget it. Like I genuinely take it in now and it becomes part of what fuels me. Life is so fragile and it can change in a second's time, I genuinely didn't think my heart could grow this big. Ihope I can remain healthy for a long time to come. I hope I don't have a recurrence. It's obviously a fear of mine often. And I hope that I'm able to do this of service type of work for decades to come as I roll into retirement and can hopefully support and change a lot of lives.

Bri (28:35)
I love that. I love that. Well, if listeners want to learn more, join one of your groups, make a donation, help you get that RV to travel around the country, where can they learn more? How can they find you?

Angel Jones (28:37)
You really can find me in a lot of places. BrainTumorCompanion.com would be a great first.

I am on YouTube. If you search Brain Tumor Companion, you'll find me on YouTube. I am on TikTok under BTCompanion. And I'm on Facebook. Instagram, all of them. Meningioma Companion, Brain Tumor Companion, those are all me. That is all of our community. We have a lot out there accessible to you.

Might just want to start at the website, which can share a little bit more about who we are. And the support group schedule is on the website, as well as all of the research collaborations that we've already had, how much money we've fundraised is all there.

You can donate through PayPal because I am in the PayPal kind of charitable giving arena. And you can even start your own fundraiser on Facebook by searching Brain Tumor Companion if you want to raise money for your birthday or you just want to maybe do like a May Gray fundraiser, you definitely can link it to our nonprofit as well.

And you can email me directly anytime at angel@braintumorcompanion.com. I'm very responsive. You can also text me at 424-239-9366. I'm really responsive to text messages as well. Feel free to reach out.

Bri (30:11)
Awesome. Well, I will be sure to include links directly to all of those outlets and social handles and website, your email, phone number as well in the show notes so that listeners can easily find you.

Angel, thank you so much for making time today. I am so grateful that you have so generously shared about Brain Tumor Companion and have no doubt that there are going to be listeners that are going to scurry over to your website and take a look at the very least at your groups and when you're going to have a new opening for them. So I appreciate you taking the time.

Angel Jones (30:43)
Absolutely, I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to do so. It's been really wonderful to have this time together.

Bri (30:55)
Thank you for being part of the Rewired Minds community. Full show notes, resources, and a transcript for today's conversation can be found at rewired-minds.com. If you or someone you know has a brain tumor story to share, I'd love to hear from you. Visit rewired-minds.com to learn more about collaborating on a future episode.

This podcast is a one woman labor of love. It's a true honor to bring it to your ears and facilitate connection among the brain tumor community. If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share with someone who might need to hear it.

Bri (31:27)
The stories shared in this podcast are personal accounts from the brain tumor community for informational and awareness purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals regarding your specific situation.