A 30 year-old man missed his own wedding reception due to a ‘horrendous migraine’ that turned out to be a large brain tumour.
Nathan Vaughan, 30, and Katie Glass [now Vaughan], 26, got married on May 4 at St Thomas Church, Holywell, Cambridgeshire.
The bridegroom began to develop the ‘worst headache of my life’ in the early hours of the morning on the big day, but the couple assumed he was just ‘feeling the pressure’.
However, straight after the wedding vows, Mr Vaughan passed out in his hotel, where he spent the rest of the day.
Both he and his new wife were devastated to miss out on their first dance and cutting of their cake.
Nathan Vaughan, 30, was thankful he got to enjoy his wedding ceremony before the agonising pain set in.
Mr Vaughan had to undergo urgent surgery to remove the tumour and the excess blood from his brain just a few days after his wedding day.
Three days after the event the couple decided to rush to hospital after the migraine continued to worsen.
Three days after the wedding, the couple drove to A&E to seek help for Ms Vaughn’s migraine that didn’t appear to be easing.
To their horror, doctors discovered a ‘huge’ brain tumour, and told the newlywed he’d need urgent brain surgery.
Despite the terrifying discovery, the pair are grateful the tumour was identified and removed quickly.
Nathan, a financial crime investigator, said: ‘Everything prior [to the wedding day] had been fine, with no problems at all.
‘On the morning of the wedding I woke up with a cracking headache at 2am and couldn’t go back to sleep.
‘I took pain killers, migraine tablets and assumed it was wedding day nerves, feeling the pressure a little bit. But it wouldn’t shift and progressively got worse during the day.
Mr Vaughan’s new wife was forced to have her first dance with her father while he ‘passed out’ from the pain
Mr Vaughan said he felt guilty ‘laying down’ upstairs at the hotel while his wife cut their wedding cake and continued the evening without him.
‘The ceremony came around and I put all my effort into being present for the ceremony. We got through the ceremony and we had some photos.
‘I popped to the reception and said I think I’ve got to go to bed. I felt absolutely awful. It was the worst headache of my life, just constant pain in the top of my head.
‘I ended up just going to the hotel room and essentially just passing out for the evening. I was thinking I’m never going to live this down.
‘My first thought was of my wife being by herself on our wedding day. I was laying upstairs wrapped with guilt that I’d left her alone.’
But the pain didn’t subside. So two days after the wedding day, the couple decided to visit their local A&E for answers.
Doctors found a haemorrhage — or large bleed — in a benign brain tumour the size of two thumbnails which required immediate surgery to remove it.
‘At first, they thought it might be meningitis,’ said Mr Vaughan.
‘They did a CT scan and said I had swelling on my pituitary gland, which sits on the brain. I thought it was just swelling and that they’d give me something to bring it down and off I’d go.
‘But I got whisked off to hospital and at 2am or 3am I was told I had a huge pituitary gland tumour.
Doctors said the life-threatening bleed on the brain began on the day of Mr Vaughan’s wedding, but the tumour may have been growing for several years.
‘It haemorrhaged in the morning [of my wedding] so I was bleeding in my brain. I was going to have surgery in a few hours.
‘They had to operate because it was pushing against my optic nerve and that was why my vision was off.
‘The next day I had a four hour operation to remove this tumour. They told me I’d probably had it my whole life. I wouldn’t have known about it. On the day of the wedding, of all days, it decided to pop.’
Thankfully, medics found that the tumour was benign, meaning it wasn’t cancerous and would not spread to other parts of his body.
‘It could’ve been a lot worse. As soon as you hear the word ‘tumour’ from the doctor’s you assume the worst.
‘I don’t think Katie realised how soon after saying “in sickness and in health” that she’d be looking after me. It’s a long recovery process.’
The couple, who have been together for a decade, are planning to re-do their wedding reception on their one year anniversary and have booked a honeymoon to Kos, Greece.
The couple plan to recreate their wedding next year and will invite family and friends to share the celebrations.
The new bride admitted she was ‘gutted’ she didn’t get to experience her wedding reception with her husband but is ‘grateful’ his tumour was removed so quickly.
Mrs Vaughan, who is a police officer, said: ‘At first I just thought he’d stressed himself out so much he’d made himself sick.
‘I sent the photographer off and he said he’d do another photoshop for free. A month later we got all dressed up and took some more photos at the venue.
‘I told the kitchen “you might as well cut the cake” and I’d just get on with it. My dad did a dance with me at the end of the night, bless him.
‘We felt incredibly guilty when we found out what it was. I thought it was just watch and wait. We thought it was a migraine.
‘It was a weird time. I like looking at the pictures but at the same time it was a really weird day. Not what I imagined for my wedding day.
‘I’m so grateful he was seen so early. If we had left it it would’ve really impacted his sight. We’re quite lucky.’
