Australian expat in Canada has sudden seizure, doctors find cancerous brain tumour

Australian expat Shanique Hallgren was living her best life when she suddenly had a seizure. What her doctors found, changed her life forever.

Australian expat Shanique Hallgren was living her best life in Canada when she suddenly had a seizure that changed her life forever.

On February 5, the Melbourne woman’s “world was turned upside down” as she thought she was a healthy 30-year-old, but the seizure led doctors to find a tumour in her brain.

“At that stage they didn’t know whether it was benign or cancerous – when they found that out in emergency, they were obviously extremely shocked and upset,” Ms Hallgren’s mum Tracey Monahan told news.com.au.

“They sent me a message at 1.30am that morning, which normally I wouldn’t check my phone but I did and I just got up and organised a flight to Canada to be with them.”

It was thought Ms Hallgren might have a low-grade glioma but after surgery, she was diagnosed with stage 3 high-grade glioma, which is an aggressive form of brain cancer.

“They say she will have a shortened life,” Ms Monahan said, who added her daughter is currently unable to stand on her own.

Australian woman Shanique Hallgren found out she had a brain tumour while living in Canada. Picture: Supplied

Ms Hallgren will need radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and while she is now able to stay at her home in Canada, she needs someone with her at all times because of the six seizures she has suffered.

This means she and her partner, James Canavan, cannot work while medical costs mount.

Her family are desperate to get her back to Melbourne, so she has a larger support system, and they can spend precious time with her.

Ms Hallgren had been booked on a flight to Australia on February 28.

“It was less than 24 hours before that flight that she had another major seizure where she was hospitalised and was in the hospital for eight days,” her mum said.

Her family are desperate to get her home to Australia. Picture: Go Fund Me

She is currently unable to walk on her own and has been having seizures. Picture: Go Fund Me

Further medical information determined that the only way Ms Hallgren could fly back to Australia was by medical evacuation flight.

“To do that privately cost $280,000, which is just unfathomable,” Ms Monahan said.

They are exploring options to share a medevac flight with another patient and have established a GoFundMe page asking for donations to help ease the financial burden.

Ms Hallgren had moved to Canada with her partner for her career. She has worked on the visual effects for notable films and television shows including Thor: Love and Thunder, Twisters, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, A Quiet Place: Day One, and the new live-action animated remake of Lilo and Stitch, as well as virtual concert residency, ABBA Voyage.

Ms Hallgren’s partner, James Canavan, has become her full-time carer. Picture: Go Fund Me

Ms Monahan described her daughter as “very insightful, very caring and very loving”, with a devotion to travel.

She said Ms Hallgren was “having the time of her life” in Canada and had plans to go to a wedding in Mexico before her world was flipped upside down.

In the months before her first seizure, Ms Hallgren had been seeing a physiotherapist for “weak ankles” and difficulty raising her right foot.

“In hindsight we now know that not being about to lift her right foot without having an injury – that was the tumour that was pressing on the left frontal lobe in her brain, and the left frontal lobe connects to motor ability in the right side of her body,” Ms Monahan said.