International Brain Tumor Awareness Week started on Sunday, 26th of October.

Joanna Najfeld reports

Every year about one hundred and eighty thousand people worldwide, including three thousand people in Poland are diagnosed with malignant tumors of the brain. This number includes about two hundred Polish children. Brain tumor is the second most common type of cancer among children.

First symptoms usually include growing headaches and vomitting. 'I had no idea even what was going on, really. I woke up with bad headaches. I mean really bad headaches. I felt like my head was going to explode everytime it hurt me. They did a cat scan and said "son, you have a brain tumor, we need to operate"' recalls one patient.

This is how people find out they have brain tumors explains professor Danuta Perek, head of the Polish Association of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology: 'These are usually morning headaches. Initially they happen seldom, then they grow more intense and more frequent. Later they are accompanied by nausea and morning vomiting. But symptoms can vary. They can include epilepsy and vision disorders, such as squint or facial nerve paralysis.'

Poland's National Consultant for Neurosurgery Tomasz Trojanowski says over half of the tumors are diagnosed as benign and can be successfully removed surgically: 'In the case of benign tumors, surgical removal usually concludes the treatment. The tumor doesn't grow back and the patient is cured.'

The surgery itself is bearable compared to other forms of treatment, says this patient: 'To me the surgery is almost the easy part, because you have the operation and then you recover, wheres chemotherapy and radiotherapy they get into your body over an amount of time and build up and build up and you sometimes end up feeling worse and worse depending on what type of treatment you are receiving.'

The Polish events marking International Brain Tumor Awareness Week emphasized that it is not only patients, but also whole families who need support in the struggle against the tumor, says Urszula, whose father died of brain cancer: 'We all suffered terribly. My mother couldn't regain her physical, not only psychological powers for a year after dad died. She refused to accept any help from other people. It takes a lot of effort to help a sick person recover, or die peacefully if there's no other way.'

Specialists emphasize, our lives may depend on the attention we pay to our bodies. 'Nowadays we have many great medical treatments for cancer, but still the best for staying in good health is prevention, so please don't forget about your regular medical check-ups,' says medical doctor Aleksandra Michałek.

Brain cancer is most common among people over 70 years of age. Among children, tumors are diagnosed most often before they turn 8. This year's was the second International Brain Tumor Awareness Week.