57-year-old woman ignored her headaches until Apple Watch exposed the real cause

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has once again lived up to its reputation as more than just a smartwatch. This time, it helped a 57-year-old woman in East Sussex, England, discover a brain tumour she never knew she had.

Sam Adams had been going through a tough time. Within months, she lost her father, her pet dog, and went through a painful divorce. The grief and stress left her exhausted, and she began suffering from frequent headaches. Like many, she thought it was all due to emotional strain and carried on with her life.

But her Apple Watch noticed something unusual. The device began alerting her to unusually low heart rates. At first, Sam ignored the notifications, thinking they were nothing serious. Around the same time, she had bumped her head on a trip abroad and was feeling dizzy and drained. “I thought it was just jet lag and stress,” she told The Sun.

Still, the alerts kept coming, and Sam finally decided to check her blood pressure. This led to further tests, including an ECG, which showed her heart was experiencing irregular beats—a condition known as cardiac ectopy. Doctors suggested more scans to be sure.

That’s when a CT scan revealed something unexpected: a brain tumour. While doctors reassured her that the tumour wasn’t necessarily dangerous, its location made it inoperable. For now, Sam is on daily aspirin and undergoes regular scans to monitor it.

Her story is a reminder that even small symptoms should not be ignored. What she believed was just stress turned out to be a serious medical condition. “If something doesn’t feel right, don’t ignore it,” she said. “Technology gave me a warning I didn’t know I needed.”

The Apple Watch has earned a reputation for saving lives with its health-focused features. Its ECG app, irregular heart rhythm detection, and high or low heart rate alerts have flagged potential problems for many users. On top of that, features like Fall Detection, Crash Detection, and Emergency SOS have helped people in life-threatening situations.

For Sam, it was a simple notification that made all the difference—proving once again that sometimes, technology really can be a lifesaver.