Artist teaches herself to paint with weaker hand after brain tumour and stroke

The 29-year-old artist was devastated after a stroke during an operation heavily affected the left side of her body.

But she vowed to overcome the challenge – and today said her art is better than ever.

It was a long road for the ex-cake decorator, who said she just feels lucky to be alive.

“When I was diagnosed, I was absolutely gobsmacked. I couldn’t really believe it at first,” she said.

“I was getting a lot of headaches, which started to get worse and worse so my partner said I needed to get checked out so I went to my GP and asked for an MRI scan.”

After being moved to hospital in Stoke in July 2016, the scan showed a tumour on Terri’s brain.

“They said they didn’t like to call it a brain tumour but that’s what it was. It was stage four cancer,” she added.

“Within a week I was undergoing a six-hour operation to remove as much of the tumour as they could, which is where I had a stroke and lost the use of most of the left side of my body.

“If I had waited a week or two longer, I would have died. I feel very lucky.

“To know you were that close is very strange.”

The complications did not stop there. The tumour had stopped vital fluid travelling properly between Terri’s brain and spine, prolonging her radiotherapy treatment.

This caused her to need multiple lumbar punctures to help try and drain the fluid from her spine.

“You have to be relatively well before they start radiotherapy, and I really wasn’t.

"I then got really ill with meningitis, which meant I had to wait even longer before my radiotherapy.

“Once I had recovered, I had six weeks of radiotherapy and I finally came out just before the Christmas of 2016.

“I now have to have a tube from my brain to my stomach to circulate the fluid properly and that will be there for the rest of my life.”

Despite the overwhelming illness and five months in hospital that resulted in the loss of use in her left hand, Terri was determined not to let it take over her one true passion.

She tried retraining her left hand, but could not gain the control she needed due to frequent spasms.

“In the end I just thought, ‘sod this, I will not let this beat me’, and I decided to try my weaker hand,” she said.

“It was hard at first. It was like being a child at school first learning to write and it’s almost readable, but all wobbly.”

It took six months of painstaking daily practice to train her weak hand before she felt able to paint again.

“I think my right hand is now better than my left ever was,” she said. “I’m not sure why or how to be honest.

“I can’t do a lot now as the main thing I struggle with is my strength – mentally it’s all easy but I find it hard to talk and I get tired quickly.”

Now living in Market Drayton with her partner Dayle, she is originally from London, where she worked as a high-end cake decorator that provided services for designer companies such as Harrods.

“I’ve had so much support from all my family and friends, as well as the doctors and nurses that looked after me,” she added.

“My dad has visited from London multiple times and Dayle didn’t leave my side the whole time, bless him.”

Terri now spends her days making anything and everything, from cakes, to all styles of artistic drawings and paintings.

“I often research different painters and paintings to get my inspiration, and then add my own twist to them – some take hours, some take days. My favourite painting I’ve done so far is the army silhouette of a helmet resting on a gun.”

Terri shares her artwork on her Facebook page, Terri Paintwell, but also wants to raise awareness of her journey.

“I was completely oblivious and I don’t think many people are aware of the whole situation.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you until it does.

“I hope people can be more aware and check themselves for all types of cancer.

“If you catch it soon enough you can be lucky, and in this case it just so happens I was very lucky indeed.”