A mother-of-two has told of the devastation of being dealt a shock diagnosis of ultra-deadly, inoperable pancreatic cancer after suffering just one early symptom.
Clair Honeywood, 45, suffered weeks of stomach pain at the end of last year, but assumed she was experiencing a flare up of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which had long plagued her.
But the NHS healthcare assistant of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, didn’t see relief from the agony — which eventually prompted her to visit her local A&E.
Doctors there performed tests where they discovered an abnormality in her pancreas, but sent her home without a diagnosis.
But the pain continued to intensify, and she developed another, terrifying symptom — the yellowing of her skin and eyes.
Known medically as jaundice, this is a serious medical emergency that means the liver and pancreas are not working properly to clear toxins from the body.
After another visit to hospital, and yet more tests, doctors delivered the gut-wrenching news that she had pancreatic cancer — one of the deadliest types of the disease.
Worse still, her tumour was wrapped around a major artery, making it inoperable.
Clair Honeywood, 45, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at stage three — with a ‘C-shaped’ tumour located around a major artery causing it to be inoperable
The NHS healthcare assistant of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, pictured with partner Danny Burch and their children, has been given a five per cent chance of success with chemotherapy by doctors
While a course of chemotherapy could slow the growth and spread of the cancer, doctors say it is unlikely it will work to extend her life for longer than a year and a half.
‘My poor consultant didn’t want to tell me [the diagnosis] but I begged him to tell me,’ she said, recalling the ordeal.
‘They then told me I had pancreatic cancer.
‘The doctors told me that the cancer had not spread — but then they said it was not operable.
‘It was another blow — I didn’t know what was going on.
‘The doctors said to just go home and make memories.’
There are around 10,800 new pancreatic cancer cases in the UK every year, Cancer Research UK says.
According to the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK, it is the deadliest common cancer and, currently, more than half of people die within three months of diagnosis.
Common symptoms include abdominal and back pain, unexplained weight loss and indigestion, loss of appetite, changes to bowel habits and jaundice.
Ms Honeywood first experienced pain in her stomach for two weeks just before Christmas , but as she has IBS she thought the pain was related to that condition
However these symptoms are often mistaken for other, more common ailments such as IBS.
The charity said 80 per cent of people with pancreatic cancer are not diagnosed until after the disease has spread.
Ms Honeywood was diagnosed at stage three — when the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes or started to grow outside the pancreas into the major blood vessels.
Despite the diagnosis, Ms Honeywood says she has been ‘really positive’ — as she has two children to ‘live for’.
She said: ‘I am only 45 and you don’t expect to go through this at this age.
‘There is still hope but at the moment I am just focusing on the three months in chemotherapy.
‘Life is for living — the body can’t survive without the mind so I have to be positive.
‘Working in the NHS you see traumatic things and you push it aside — I don’t know if it is a coping mechanism.
Now Ms Honeywood’s motivation is set on marrying her partner of 21 years Danny Burch, 40, and her friends and family have set up a GoFundMe page to make the day happen
‘It is not normal for someone my age to get this cancer — it is a silent cancer too it is really tricky.
‘When you don’t know what’s happening your mind just goes to some dark places.’
‘You just feel like your whole world ended — you just think about your kids.’
Now her motivation to carry on is her desire to marry her partner of 21 years Danny Burch, 40, and her friends and family have set up a GoFundMe page to make the day happen.
Following her diagnosis Ms Honeywood explained that getting married would be a ‘dream come true’.
‘My partner Danny had been talking about getting married and my friend offered her hand to do the wedding in a farm which reminds me of my dad’s home in the country side.
‘I feel like I have been given the gift of time. I am spending more time with my boys — I have to look at the positives.
‘We have been together for 21 years and it has been crazy that it took us this long to get married. He keeps looking at me and saying “I can’t wait for you to be my wife”.’
The wedding is set to take place at the end of July when she finishes her chemo.
Ms Honeywood is hoping to have a laid-back wedding — surrounded by nature and with their loved ones.
‘It is going to be such a perfect day to get together with all of my friends and family that you don’t get with when you are working,’ she said.
