What to look for: Brain tumour symptoms

About 300 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year — high profile examples include singers Russell Watson and Sheryl Crow, who both survived.

There are around 130 different types of brain tumour. Only around half are cancerous, while the rest are benign — although these can still be life-threatening, because of the damage they can do to the brain.

Primary brain tumours, which arise from the brain, are very rare, and secondary tumours which have spread to the brain from cancers in other parts of the body, are more common — up to 40% of all cancers eventually spread to the brain.