Her ‘gibberish’ email requesting a day off alarmed colleagues — then doctors rushed her into two emergency surgeries
Even the most devastating diagnosis does not have the power to break a person’s will to live. When 37-year-old Becca Valle was constantly suffering from "chronic migraines," her general practitioner assumed it to be a sinus issue. After experiencing severe symptoms, including vomiting, she decided to visit the ER and email her boss requesting the day off. However, when she sent an email, it turned out to be "gibberish." This frightened her colleague, who escalated the issue to his superior. The diagnosis that followed revealed the shocking truth behind the chronic migraines she had been experiencing. Reported by PEOPLE on Sunday, February 15, 2026, Valle now credits her diagnosis with saving her life.
In 2021, when the then 37-year-old Becca Valle woke up every day with chronic headaches, she suspected they were migraines. Unable to tolerate the pain any longer, she consulted her sister-in-law, who had experience with migraines. On her advice, she visited a general practitioner, who had also said that Valle was suffering from migraines due to sinuses. Despite medication, her headaches never subsided. She hoped that taking different approaches, such as morning walks, would lessen the pain. After three weeks, when she began throwing up from the pain in the afternoon, she immediately called her then-boyfriend to take her to the ER.
Since she had to take a day off work, she decided to write an email to her boss, but what she wrote raised an alarm. "Emails I had sent to my work letting them know I was signing off for the day were gibberish, so much so that a close colleague escalated to my boss, as it frightened him," Valle recalled. "By this point, I was in the ER and writing texts with similar gibberish to my partner, since he was not allowed in with me due to COVID."
After Valle underwent a scan, doctors found blood in her brain, which led them to perform an exploratory craniotomy, a surgery that involved removing a section of her skull to discover a brain tumor, reported CBS News. A second exploratory craniotomy pieced together the missing puzzle she had been struggling to find for so many years; she had glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. The treatment and the device used in the procedure are currently awaiting review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Recalling her diagnosis journey as an "interesting" experience, the now 42-year-old revealed that she requested doctors to do every possible trial and treatment to resolve the medical problem. After consulting her radiologist and oncologist, Valle was "presented with multiple trial options"; however, she was only offered those that depended on a particular gene.
This was when she came across Dr. Graeme Woodworth, the Chief of Neurosurgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), whose clinical trials involved drug therapies administered by temporarily opening the blood-brain barrier. Valle was among 34 other participants who, after six months of ultrasound treatment, are now "living life fully." Although her doctors have warned that her cancer is likely to recur, she calls herself "cancer-free" and looks forward to embracing her life with greater compassion. Four years after she rang the "cancer is clear" bell, Valle's only advice to people is, "As much as you can, take control of your journey. Talk to doctors and others who have gone through the same."