Home bakery helps mum cope with 'timebomb illness'

A mother who described her inoperable brain condition as a "ticking timebomb" said opening an "honest" bakery in a shed at her home was helping her to cope.

Megan Jackson, from Hetton-le-Hole, Sunderland, bakes and displays her own treats with an honesty box, which trusts customers to pay the correct amount of money while unattended.

The registered nurse, who is on maternity leave after having her son Albie, was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm - a swollen blood vessel - after suffering extreme headaches.

She said baking was her "coping mechanism" and she was touched that hundreds of people had visited her shed.

Megan was warned by doctors that stress can increase the risk of stroke, which prompted her to take up baking.

"I started making little boxes [of food] for people, which went crazy, started making a little bit more, and it hasn't stopped," she said.

While being unable to work, she came up with the idea as a way to potentially support her family if she cannot return to her job.

Since then, hundreds of people have visited the shed.

Megan said she was working round the clock to bake and had been surprised by the support.

She said the venture was a needed distraction after suffering poor mental health following her diagnosis in March, last year.

As well as severe headaches, medics noticed one pupil was larger than the other, prompting a brain scan which revealed a 5mm-wide aneurysm.

It poses a risk of rupturing and she has been told that, because of its size, it is too risky to operate.

Megan said she and her husband Liam had cried when she got the diagnosis and her first thought had been who would look after her toddler "if I die".

She manages the condition through baking and daily prescription medications, but is often left with confusion and fatigue.

Baking brings her "total peace" and she said she spent time in the kitchen "cracking on".

"It just feels I haven't got the worry of the stress of the aneurysm. I totally shut off and my mind is focused," she added.

Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.