Althea Overbey thought she had experienced a miracle after surviving risky surgery to remove a brain tumour just a few months after her son was born in 1985.

Now, 30 years later, she is convinced she has benefited from another divine intervention.

Ms Overbey, 63, has lived a healthy, happy life since that operation, but during the summer she discovered she had another tumour in exactly the same place. Last month, she underwent brain surgery for the second time — and, just like the first time, she believes she has emerged stronger than ever.

“I never panicked,” the special education teacher told The Royal Gazette.

“I just have a strong faith and I just turned it over to God. I didn’t worry. I just prayed and prayed.”

Ms Overbey was in her early thirties and living in Philadelphia with her three-month-old son Jerome, now a police officer in Bermuda, when her first meningioma brain tumour was diagnosed. She had been suffering from terrible pains in her head, blurred vision and nausea after the birth, but doctors put it down to stress over her marriage break-up.

One day, while driving Jerome to the city’s Children’s Hospital for a bad chest cold, she collapsed at the wheel of her car and was admitted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania next door.

She wrote a piece for RG Magazine in 1995 about her experience, describing how medics told her the tumour at the base of her brain was “the largest [the doctor] had ever seen, it was the size of a grapefruit”.

Last year she spoke out again about her recovery to encourage teenager N’Keema Virgil, 13, who bravely battled brain cancer herself. Ms Overbey told the teenager: “I had to get on with my life but I have been fine. I don’t take anything for granted. I have brought up my son, bought a beautiful house, travelled around the world.”

A large scar on the back of her head marks the spot where Ms Overbey’s first tumour was successfully removed during a six-hour operation — and now a second scar runs alongside it.

The latest growth came to light after Ms Overbey began feeling ill but could not pinpoint the problem.

“I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling sick,” she said. “But one day I was coming down Rosemont [Avenue] to the ferry and I just couldn’t walk. I flagged a car down and said, ‘can you give me a lift?’.

“The driver said ‘have you been to the doctor? Have you checked your heart?’. I got a taxi back to my car, got in it and went straight to my doctor.”

Her GP ordered an MRI scan and the result was sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where doctors immediately identified a lump which they believed had been growing at the base of Ms Overbey’s brain since 2011.

“I didn’t even think it could have been a brain tumour because I left the brain tumour in a jar in Philadelphia all those years ago,” she said. “But the same thing that happened back then had happened again.”

Despite the diagnosis, she went on a cruise to the Caribbean, which provided the perfect rest she needed before the gruelling surgery to come. Afterwards, she visited the Holy Land Christian theme park in Florida, where she bought a prayer cloth, which she packed in her hospital bag before being admitted to Johns Hopkins on September 1.

There she underwent a craniectomy to remove the second meningioma and, once again, it was successful.

“The first week was somewhat difficult, particularly the first night,” she said. “I had recollections of my first tumour. I was screaming, ‘help, help’, as it really was painful.

“I could only sleep on the left side as the cut on the right side had to heal. It was good when the tube was taken off.”

She credits her family — including her cousin Madree Furbert, who accompanied her to Baltimore; her son, who visited her there; and another relative, Linda Manders — with helping her to bounce back so quickly.

Monica Martin-Sams, a Bermudian friend who lives in Philadelphia, also stepped in to assist. Back in 1985, she looked after Ms Overbey’s son while she underwent surgery. This time, the friend’s daughter, Jamilla, gave support, too.

“Recovery is not easy,” said Ms Overbey, who needed a walking stick straight after the surgery but has already discarded it. “Holding on to my son Jerome’s arm has been part of the healing process. But I didn’t even think about dying. I just thought this is a process that I have to go through. I’m just thankful that they discovered it.”

She has gone public with her story, she said, to “inspire other people”.

“You can do anything you want,” she said. “Just be positive, pray to God. I’m not saying life is perfect but really it is a miracle how I have just gotten on with my life.”

Ms Overbey, who grew up in Loyal Hill and who now lives in Pembroke, will return to Johns Hopkins for a check-up this month. She plans to go back to work at the K Margaret Carter Centre in November.

“I feel fine,” she said. “I feel like I have been refurbished.”

Her son described his mother as a “remarkable woman, who was always a loving provider and an amazing mother to me”.

“She’s off the charts, that one. Having to go through this twice is a testament to her character and how strong she is,” said Pc Overbey, 30. “The strength she portrayed was quite inspiring and it shows that people shouldn’t give up.”