'Our daughter died of a brain tumour. We blame her mobile'

'Our daughter died of a brain tumour. We blame her mobile'

by LECH MINTOWT-CZYZ, Daily Mail

A teenage girl who spent hours talking on her mobile phone each day has died from a brain tumour.

Samantha Miller, 17, spent hundreds of pounds a month on 'topup' cards to pay for calls to her friends.

Her parents are convinced her constant mobile phone use triggered the tumour that killed her.

Less than a year after she bought the phone Samantha started complaining of headaches, ringing in the ears and a numb face.

Doctors diagnosed a malignant brain tumour and after a 15-month battle with the disease she died two weeks ago.

She will be buried next Wednesday, the day she should have celebrated her 18th birthday.

Her parents, Janet, 39, and Phil, 58, believe her phone is to blame.

The family, including Samantha's four brothers and sisters, have stopped using mobile phones.

'Samantha was glued to her phone day and night chatting to friends and her boyfriend,' her mother said.

'She was a real chatterbox - very lively, healthy and outgoing - and that phone never stopped ringing.

'But she suddenly started getting headaches and went downhill very quickly. It was heartbreaking to watch.

'We are convinced she died because she spent so much time on the phone.'

Samantha, who was studying hairdressing and beauty therapy at a college in Street, near Glastonbury, Somerset, bought her handset nearly two years ago.

In January 2001 she was referred to Yeovil hospital where she was diagnosed with a highly malignant and advanced tumour.

The specialist asked Mrs Miller and her husband, a retired coach driver, if Samantha had a mobile phone.

However he was reluctant to blame it outright for her illness. In March last year surgeons at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, operated to remove the tumour and this was followed by a course of radiotherapy.

But it returned in January and persisted despite a further course of chemotherapy.

Samantha spent her final weeks in a wheelchair and paralysed down her left side.

Her mother said: 'I have lost a beautiful daughter. It is too late for her but I want others, especially children, to be aware of the dangers.

'Samantha was an extremely popular and bubbly girl, I could not believe how many friends she had. She was always on the phone to them.

'The phone had an antenna and where she held it to her head was where the tumour appeared.

'Holding a phone so close to your ear means all the radiation is going straight into the brain.

'There needs to be more research - everyone has a mobile phone these days and I don't want anyone else to die as a result.'

After she was diagnosed, Samantha's two brothers Simon, 19 and Gary, 12, and sisters Jenny, 15, and Mariah, eight, stopped using mobile phones.

Research by Dr Alan Preece at Bristol University has supported the claims of those who believe mobile phone radiation is not safe.

A study of volunteers showed the emissions heat up the brain and alter reaction times.

In another study, Dr Preece used squid to argue that human brains can be altered by electrical impulses.

The squid changed colour when exposed to mobile phones, violently flashing through the spectrum. They also showed slower reaction times.

Simon Best, of mobile phone emission pressure group Powerwatch, said the Millers' story was becoming all too common.

'The amount of evidence that shows that mobile phone use is damaging is growing by the day,' he said.

'And as more and more people use their handsets for longer we expect cases like this to grow rapidly.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-123198/Our-daughter-died-brain-tumour-We-blame-mobile.html#ixzz2ZTDygs63 

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