After many years of ‘paralysing’ headaches, Megan Jackson was used to just grinning and bearing it.<\/p>\n
But when the busy mother-of-two, 27, from Sunderland, found that one particular headache simply wouldn’t shift, she decided to pay a visit to her GP and discovered that she was living with a potentially fatal brain aneurysm.<\/p>\n
Ms Jackson said: ‘Knowing I have something in my brain that could instantly kill me is terrifying.<\/p>\n
‘I fear my children growing up without their mum and also leaving behind my husband.<\/p>\n
‘It’s so scary; there’s a ticking time bomb in my head that could go off at any point.’<\/p>\n
Ms\u00a0Jackson, who works as a nurse, had been dealing with headaches ever since she was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2020.<\/p>\n
But in March 2025, she was left bedbound due to the agonising pain in her head. She assumed it was down to having high blood pressure coupled with daily stresses.<\/p>\n
But this was far from the actual nightmare.<\/p>\n
![\"Megan](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2026\/04\/03\/10\/107631801-15703557-image-a-4_1775207466647.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMegan Jackson, 27, was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm after a terrible headache<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
She said: ‘The doctor noticed my left pupil was bigger than my right.<\/p>\n
‘I was sent to hospital for an emergency same-day scan.<\/p>\n
‘It was confirmed I had a brain aneurysm and it was inoperable due to its size.<\/p>\n
‘Me and my husband, Liam, burst out crying. I could see the pure sadness in his face.’<\/p>\n
A brain aneurysm is a swelling in a blood vessel in the brain. Risk factors include smoking, heavy drinking, old age and high blood pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n They are relatively common, with around three per cent – roughly two million people – in the UK living with an unruptured aneurysm.<\/p>\n Most brain aneurysms are small and do not cause symptoms, meaning that many people who have them are not aware of it, unless they undergo a brain scan for another condition.<\/p>\n However, larger aneurysms may cause symptoms such as a headache, pain above or around the eyes, changes in vision, dizziness and balance problems, numbness or weakness on one side of the face, difficulty concentrating and memory problems.<\/p>\n Ms Jackson has a 5mm aneurysm, and if the blood-filled bulge ruptures, it’ll cause a subarachnoid haemorrhage that will kill her instantly.<\/p>\n To help lower her risk, and eliminate stress, she’s taking various medications to help lower her blood pressure.<\/p>\n Ms Jackson is currently on sick leave from her role as a nurse, which has followed her maternity leave after giving birth to little Albie, three months. She is also mum to\u00a0Georgie, two.<\/p>\n She said: ‘If things keep progressing like they are, I won’t be returning to nursing.<\/p>\n ‘Every time I open my eyes, I’m grateful I’m still alive so I’m trying to live each day like it’s my last.’<\/p>\n Ms Jackson is now living every day like it could be her last<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Jackson with her husband and their two children<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During this period, she’s taken up baking, which has brought her a sense of relaxation and she has opened a cake shed which sells out every weekend.<\/p>\n And hopes this will offer a new future for her, which will allow her to spend more time making memories with her family.<\/p>\n Aneurysms are diagnosed in hospitals using specialised imaging tests which allow doctors to get detailed images of the brain and blood vessels.<\/p>\n These include CT, MRI or MRA scans – which Kim is having in The Kardashians trailer- and lastly a cerebral angiography.<\/p>\n This is when dye is injected into the arteries to provide clear, detailed pictures of the blood vessels in the brain and highlight any aneurysm.<\/p>\n Whilst most aneurysms remain stable, around one in every 100 will rupture – \u2014often without warning – causing a brain bleed known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a rare but life-threatening type of stroke.<\/p>\n The main symptom is a sudden, severe headache that’s sometimes described as a ‘thunderclap headache’.<\/p>\n The haemorrhage can happen at any time, but it may be more likely when a patient puts strain on their body\u2014either by coughing, lifting something heavy or engaging in sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n Each year, an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people in the UK will suffer a ruptured aneurysm, with around half of these cases proving fatal.<\/p>\n But, not everyone who has a brain aneurysm will need treatment, according to the NHS.<\/p>\n This is because they often do not increase in size, and have a relatively low risk of bursting, especially if they’re not causing symptoms.<\/p>\n Low-risk aneurysms will be monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities.<\/p>\n Doctors will consider the location, size, shape and a patient’s family history to determine whether they need treatment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After many years of ‘paralysing’ headaches, Megan Jackson was used to just grinning and bearing it. But when the busy mother-of-two, 27, from Sunderland, found that one particular headache simply wouldn’t shift, she decided to pay a visit to her GP and discovered that she was living with a potentially fatal brain aneurysm. Ms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[987],"tags":[1384,1392,1394,1390,1385,1391,1386,1395,1388,1387,1393,1389],"class_list":{"0":"post-7401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthy-living","8":"tag-brain-aneurysm","9":"tag-brain-scan","10":"tag-cerebral-angiography","11":"tag-high-blood-pressure","12":"tag-megan-jackson","13":"tag-neurology","14":"tag-nhs-health-news","15":"tag-patient-stories","16":"tag-stroke-symptoms","17":"tag-subarachnoid-haemorrhage","18":"tag-sunderland-nurse","19":"tag-thunderclap-headache"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7417,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions\/7417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ms](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2026\/04\/03\/10\/107631813-15703557-image-a-6_1775207554635.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Ms](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2026\/04\/03\/10\/107631811-15703557-image-a-5_1775207522606.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n