Aya Hirano: “I Have a Brain Tumour”

Aya Hirano has revealed she has a brain tumour.

The revelations come by way of the seiyuu news wire, Twitter:

I’ve had chronic migraine since I was in middle school, and they found a tumour! That sometimes causes trouble so there are all kinds of restrictions I’m under.

[…]

Don’t worry – of course not all people with migraines have tumours. Mine is an adenoma of the pituitary gland [a benign tumour in the brain]. I have to go to the hospital every year for a checkup to make sure it’s not going malign.

[…]

Sometimes the tumour presses on my optic nerve and I go blind or stop being able to speak, but I’m OK! I’m used to it!

[…]

I have medicine so it’s OK! In middle school I was told there was surgery I could take, but I gave up on it because I’d end up looking like a mummy with my head bandaged up and they’d have to break my nose to do it.

I was told my voice would change too. Having just started as a seiyuu I was not happy about my voice suddenly changing.

[…]

At first, at school my speech became weird and my memory was messed up, so it was a big deal, but that was 10 years ago.

I’ve grown used to it. I know how to deal with it.

[…]

Oh, so you can do the surgery with a laser now!?

But it’s not urgent so there’s no rush. I’m OK. I’m going to the hospital annually.

Well, I was busy so I didn’t go for 2 years… this year my health broke down so I went to all kinds of hospitals.

Whilst this unfortunate tale has likely increased sympathy for her (although not on 2ch), and possibly explains certain unusual episodes in career, there are some who have noted the timing of the revelation with scepticism, coming as it does just after she committed the seiyuu equivalent of suicide.