WHEN Shirley Kennedy saw her 2-year-old daughter entering a trance for the first time, she never believed it could be a brain seizure.

Amy wasn't shaking, but was turning her head to the left, as if trying to look behind her.

Then her eyes rolled back into her head.

``She went into a state of fixation,'' Mrs Kennedy said.

``Friends were saying she was just playing, but I knew something was very wrong. I started getting worried when it kept happening.''

Mrs Kennedy took Amy to the Children's Hospital at Westmead, where she was referred to a neurologist.

Frustrated by the four-month waiting list to see the specialist, Mrs Kennedy returned to hospital the next day.

``They sent Amy for a CAT scan and as they were putting the needle in her hand she had a seizure,'' she said.

Amy had a ganglioglioma brain tumour and needed surgery immediately.

``I couldn't believe what was happening,'' Mrs Kennedy said.

The tumour was removed in a four-hour operation and apart from annual MRI scans, Amy Oxley is now a happy and healthy 14-year-old.

``Amy knows she is very lucky, but you'd never know by looking at her that she'd gone through anything like this,'' Mrs Kennedy said.

``The doctors and nurses were amazing, but we couldn't be ringing them every five minutes ... We didn't know anything about brain tumours and hadn't met anyone who had been through it.''

Mrs Kennedy has appealed for donations to brain tumour support organisations during International Brain Tumour Awareness Week, November 1-7.

Information: http://www.btaa.org.au.