‘Why me?’: Doctors thought Amy Docherty had a birthmark but the truth was far worse

22-year-old Amy Docherty was experiencing frequent headaches. But she never expected the sinister reason why.

Amy Docherty is 22 years old and fighting a brain tumour doctors originally believed to only be a birthmark. Picture: Brett Hartwig

After years monitoring what doctors believed to be a birthmark on her brain, Amy Docherty was told a few weeks ago she’d actually been living with cancer.

Calling it the “scariest thing she’d ever been told” at just 22 years old Amy is facing six weeks of radiation therapy everyday to try to combat stage 2 astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer.

“The first thing I thought was ‘am I going to die?’,” the Seaford Heights woman told The Advertiser.

“I find myself thinking ‘why me? What did I do to deserve this in life?’

“I do think my early adult life has been taken from me.”

Amy Docherty after her first brain surgery to remove an AVM. Picture: Supplied

Amy Docherty was 17 when she underwent her first brain surgery. Picture: Supplied

In late 2018, when Amy was 17 years old, she was working at McDonalds when she began dropping everything she picked up.

“I was rushed to the Royal Adelaide as a code stroke … it was really scary for me,” she said.

“They cleared me of a stroke in a few hours and that’s when they discovered that there were two abnormal parts of my brain.”

Doctors sent her home with appointments to visit a neurologist.

Soon after it was confirmed that Amy had an Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) and what doctors believed was a birthmark on her brain.

She had the AVM removed in April 2019 and continued to monitor her “birthmark”.

Amy recovering from her second brain surgery. Picture: Supplied

Amy after her fourth and most recent brain surgery. Picture: Supplied

But in late December 2020 the “birthmark” had grown.

“My neurologist told me … they were thinking it might be a tumour,” she said.

Four months later in April 2021 Amy underwent another brain surgery to biopsy the “birthmark” but the results were unable to confirm what the lesion was.

By September 2023 the mark had doubled in size and the 22-year-old had to undergo another brain surgery to biopsy the site which again returned no definitive answer.

In November 2023 doctors made the decision to attempt to remove the tumour as best they could, but unfortunately the entirety was unable to be resected.

“The day before surgery the pre-op scan showed it measured 20mm and now it measures 23mm,” she said.

“So whatever they resected during surgery has grown back and it’s growing back more.

“It’s definitely growing and it’s quite scary.”

Amy must undergo radiation therapy to remove the remaining cancerous cells in her brain. Picture: Supplied

Amy said she experienced frequent headaches prior to her diagnosis.

“Don’t let doctors or anyone tell you how you’re feeling,” she said.

“I was always told ‘it’s just a headache, you’ll be fine’.

“I think if I persisted earlier on would things have changed?”

If you’d like to donate to Amy, you can here.