A BRAVE Rosyth woman has undergone brain surgery after pushing medics for a diagnosis.

Chelley Pinchard, a 34-year-old flight attendant from Holborn Place, knew something was wrong when she began passing out in February this year.

It was out of the norm for her and after countless tests and a referral to a neurologist, she got answers.

She told the Press: "Back in February, I lost consciousness twice and I chose to investigate it because it's not normal. From there, we started doing investigations with my GP, cardiologists then in turn neurologists.

"I went for an ECG, a tilt table test and then I was referred to the neurology department. He immediately said, 'You've got epilepsy' but I said, 'You've not touched me, you've not tested me and I'm not happy about it.'

"He booked me in for an MRI and here we are. The first one showed, on my frontal left lobe, a low-grade, grade two glioma. From there, I was sent to neurosurgery in the Royal in Edinburgh, I went for countless MRIs, functional MRIs, just to see how my tumour was behaving."

Instead of leaving it to chance and choosing to have the tumour observed, Chelley chose surgery and took it in her stride.

Because of the position of the tumour, which was on the speech and language part of her brain and the area that moves her legs, she was told that she would have to be awake during the surgery.

She continued: "I got to watch the entire surgery because I was awake, they brought the screen to my face and it was fascinating to watch. I feel like I remember all of it but I don't. The surgery took six hours, longer than what they anticipated but he pushed the tumour to the limit and I had the speech therapists in the surgery with me.

"They had flip charts and stuff, they were asking me to talk, pick things that didn't match, the odd one out and then I was moved into recovery for a couple of hours before I went to high dependency."

Surgeons managed to get 95 per cent of her tumour but her fight wasn't over.

"The severity of it has finally hit, I was meant to be in hospital for three days following surgery but I ended up being there for a week because I had a seizure on the Thursday. I felt overwhelmed with emotion so I've been referred to a psychologist but I feel incredibly lucky and proud of myself and thankful to the surgeon and the entire team at the hospital," she said.

The tumour has been sent off to pathology to confirm that it's not cancerous and the remaining five per cent can be observed or treated with radiation and chemotherapy. While she didn't need to shave her hair off for the surgery, Chelley decided to shave it anyway.

She continued: "My take on it was, it's just hair and I would much prefer to just shave it than be sporting a combover to cover the scar so I shaved my head and with the potential chemo and radiation, I've got the possibility of losing my hair anyway."

But she isn't the only one who's going to brave the shave, her ex-colleagues and friends at Dunfermline's Old Inn are also shaving their hair off. The pub, on Kirkgate, is hosting their Shave for Chelley event tonight (Friday) where half of the bar staff will be shaving their heads in support.

Gregor Neil, pub manager, will be shaving not only his hair but his beard in support if the fundraising goal is met. He said: "It was me and my big mouth basically but, no, it's going to be a really good night. It's not about me at all though it's about Chelley and how inspiring and brave she's been."

On the night, a live raffle will be drawn with prizes like hospitality at KDM Group East End Park, bottles from your favourite alcohol brands, a full cleaning session for your home and professional home baking gift sets up for grabs. There will also be a home-cooked buffet and a live vinyl DJ set from Colin Cook.

Tickets are £5 per person and can be bought behind the bar. The money is going toward's Chelley's Just Giving fundraiser in the hope of raising the remaining £190 of her £1,000 target for The Brain Tumour Charity, who helped her enormously during such a difficult time.

Chelley said: "When I was diagnosed, two days later I joined every support group going and The Brain Tumour Charity, there's so much help there. They've helped me with applying for benefits, counselling and fundraising, the person I spoke to about fundraising sent me a card after surgery and I know it's cringey to say but you're better safe than a tumour!"

It wasn't just the charity and her friends who supported her though, her sister was her rock throughout this.

"I wouldn't have gotten through this without her, she missed her holiday and everything for my surgery and I wouldn't be here without her."

Now that she has undergone her surgery, she wants everyone to trust their gut and push to get the care they need.

She added: "I'm so glad I did that, otherwise I would have just been given medication to control my 'seizures' which was apparently a growth period for the tumour and was why I essentially fainted.

"If you've got a gut instinct, follow it, go for it and get it checked."

To support Chelley and her fundraising efforts, head along to the Shave for Chelley event at the Old Inn tonight at 6pm or donate on her Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/shave-for-chelley%20.