Hi Jenny and welcome to Cancer Chat.

I noticed you were hoping to find out whether you would be able to get your driving licence back and drive again since your brain tumour was discovered.

I hope this information about driving with a brain tumour I've found on The Brain Tumour Charity's website as well as the information we have about brain tumours and driving will help shed some light on this for you but if you'd like to speak with one of our cancer nurses about this, they're just a phone call away on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m.

I hope this helps and you hear back from some of our members who have been in a similar situation soon.

Kind regards,

Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Jenny,

Similar situation here but different. Here's my actual history/timeline...

31 Jan 2018 Admitted to Hospital
02 Feb 2018 Brain tumour diagnosed
20 Feb 2018 Brain surgery to excise tumour
26 Mar 2018 First stereotactic radiotherapy on "shell" of brain tumour
28 Mar 2018 Last stereotactic radiotherapy on "shell" of brain tumour
30 Apr 2018 First post-op MRI brain scan (every 3 months ongoing)
09 May 2018 First post-op doctor update (every 3 months ongoing)
16 Aug 2018 Renewed driving licence anyway (photo expires Sept 2018)
20 Aug 2018 My new driving licence arrived in the post (expires 9/12/2022) but can't use it to drive
29 Mar 2019 One year since last brain treatment, Doc says I'm ok to drive
13 Jun 2019 Did DVLA form for a new driving licence (and surrendered old one)
20 Nov 2019 DVLA finally responded about licence, I filled in the form, copied it and scanned my licence, posted off form and licence
30 Nov 2019 New driving licence came (but expires after 1 year in 2020 not 2022)
16 Sep 2020 Posted off the DVLA form to renew my driving licence
19 Feb 2021 Renewed driving licence came in the post (expires 17/02/2022)
18 Feb 2022 DVLA website says they are falling behind in renewing licences. If I have no reason to expect my licence not to be renewed I can carry on driving legally.
11 Aug 2022 I am phoned by my doctor, they want to check me over to assess my suitability to drive so that my licence can be renewed.

Long story short, if your doctor assesses you as competant to drive then you can apply to DVLA to get your licence back. In a perfect world it would be the same doctor who advised you to stop driving in the first place. There's no dodging the "doctor" route because DVLA will send you a form that needs to be filled in and signed by your doctor. Your new licence will be valid for a year so you'll have to go thru the rigmarole of renewing it every year.

Hope this helps, and good luck. Be patient, DVLA is pretty bent out of shape these days.

Kind regards,
Steve
 

1) Is the only issue the cancer or are there other medical conditions that need notifying. Look at the big picture.

2) Do your doctors say you are fit to drive now? DVLA will write to them and if your doctors say No then it is a waste of time applying until they say Yes or Maybe – I have added in an additional reply relating to a close friend of mine who got a Maybe –(unless you need the refusal to get a free bus pass). I had to have a lot of tests (have detailed what I went through below) before I got the Yes I needed after GP said a big fat No! (I didn't have brain cancer but did have suspected seizure and with seizure history there can be a lot of tests)

When I had a blackout (suspected seizure) I followed the advice on Gov.uk, stopped driving and notified DVLA.

DVLA contacted my GP who called me in for an interview.

My GP then sent the medical form back and within days I was told by DVLA that I had to surrender my licence. 

The only good thing about the licence being taken from me was that I immediately became eligible for a free disabled bus pass, which I duly obtained.

Next, I had to be referred by my GP and given a complete check over by both neurology and cardiology, including MRI, both normal and sleep-deprived EEGs, treadmill test, stress Echo, 24-hour ECG etc before finally being told I could drive again. 

The doctors didn't assume that the cause of the seizure was neurological. I think whenever anyone has a seizure there is a need to be very very thorough. 

When my licence was initially taken from me, I was told I could reapply after a certain period, subject to my doctors saying I was fit to drive, which didn't happen until both neurology and cardiology had finished with me! There were a lot of cardiology tests because unfortunately I started seeing stars when undertaking the treadmill test and there were some minor ECG abnormalities. 

Finally, after a period of not driving then re-applying, I got back a full driving licence.

Unfortunately, I subsequently had another neurological issue which meant I had to inform DVLA yet again and not drive for a period. After that, I was allowed to drive again. However, my licence was medically restricted and limited to one year.

And now my licence needs renewing again and I am currently not driving.

Good luck!

A close friend of mine has a brain condition and were told by neurology consultant to notify DVLA (no seizures). The neurology Consultant sat on the fence saying they could not determine whether or not my friend was fit to drive and it was up to DVLA to form a view on this. My friend then had to let DVLA have access to all scans – MRI, CT-PET, etc – and, as a result of what the scans showed (pattern of atrophy/neuronal loss) were required to do both some cognitive tests and also a practical driving assessment following which they were allowed a 1-year medically restricted licence. When the licence came up for renewal after 1 year there had to be another practical assessment. I guess maybe these things can be quite individual – it may depend on where the tumour is in the brain what further assessments might be requested (depending on what neurology consultant says impacts could be but also they do look at relevant scans).

The practical assessment when it happens is not the same as a driving test but is looking to check that a driver is safe on the road, can take on board some simple instructions at the same time as driving etc. One of the cognitive tests were looking to see that processing speed was not too slow. And I think there may have been a few physical checks. I went along to the first assessment with my friend, but not the second.