A Whitstable teenager was just days away from dying when his optician found a tumour in his brain.

Ethan Sayer, 16, of The Sidings, had been suffering with headaches and had passed out numerous times over the course of 18 months.

Mum Claire thought her son could have had a stroke.

She said: “He was taken to the QEQM hospital in Margate in an ambulance and was checked over for 20 minutes. They thought he had Bell’s palsy.”

After countless visits to the GP, Claire took her son to Specsavers in Whitstable, where optometrist director Siobhan Fennel performed a routine examination.

She immediately noticed pressure at the back of Ethan’s eye and referred the 16-year-old to a specialist ward at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

He was just a few days away from dying.

Mrs Sayer, Ethan’s mum said his symptoms started more than two years before the brain tumour was detected.

She said: “We took him to see doctors. The first one said that it was probably his diet, so we changed some things Ethan was eating. It wasn’t that.

“We went back the second time and Ethan actually passed out.

“The doctor said that Ethan was going to be a fainter!

“The headaches started to get more frequent and much worse, they were making him really sick.

“They said it was migraines and gave him migraine tablets.

“Ethan would just walk along and he would fall to the floor.”

"He is feeling really well now he is back to his normal self. The main thing is that he is alive" - Claire Sayer

The mother-of-three said she always knew deep down it was more than just bad headaches.

It was after the doctors said Ethan’s symptoms were down to migraines that the 16-year-old gradually got worse.

Mrs Sayer said: “He was poorly all of the time, he stopped going out. We always used to moan at him as we thought he was being lazy.”

“It was obvious we weren’t getting anywhere.”

It wasn’t until somebody mentioned to Claire that she should take her son to the opticians for an eye test.

She took Ethan to Specsavers in Whitstable High Street where they performed a routine examination.

She said: “They knew something was wrong straight away. Siobhan the optometrist got in touch with Ashford hospital and we went to an appointment the following week.”

After Ethan had an MRI scan and blood tests in January, the hospital confirmed a build-up of fluid on Ethan’s brain.

On the same day, he was rushed to King’s College Hospital in London to have an emergency operation to divert and drain the fluid.

At first Ethan’s mum said her son couldn’t quite understand what was going on.

She said: “He became scared about what was going to happen to him. Before the operation, he was really brave – the surgeons were brilliant.”

"The operation took three hours and the surgeons had to make a new pathway to drain the fluid. He had half-a-litre of fluid on his brain.

“The surgeon thought it had been there for a while. They said if they didn’t operate when they did he would have died.”

"When he came out of the operation, they were 80% sure the lump was benign and the fluid was draining properly.

“It was horrendous, you just don’t think things like that are going to happen to you.

“When they told us I just wanted to burst into tears. You have to pull yourself together. It was awful – people don’t realise how hard it is.”

Ethan has recently started sixth form at Canterbury Academy but due to his surgery has had to stop football and physical sports.

Mrs Sayer said: “He has a shunt in his head so he’s had to stop football and sports. It’s more of a confidence thing. The doctors said in time he will be able to play sports.

“He is feeling really well now he is back to his normal self. The main thing is that he is alive.”

After the successful operation, Ethan will need an MRI scan and check up every four to six months and in the regular checks on his brain for the rest of his life.