In January of this year, Banbury woman Charlotte Rooney thought she had a winter cold as her nose was blocked, though she wasn’t experiencing any other symptoms.
After two or three weeks, the blocked feeling wasn’t going away by itself so she went to see a doctor, who gave her a nasal cream, and then shortly afterwards when she sought treatment again she was told the feeling was ‘nothing serious’.
Charlotte’s first sign was a blocked nose, which she initially thought was a symptom of a seasonal cold. (Just Giving)
In February, she developed a tingling sensation on the side of her face, which then progressed to a burning feeling, leading Charlotte to be diagnosed with chronic pain disorder trigeminal neuralgia.
This still didn’t explain the blocked nose, and in April, she went and got a private appointment where she was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.
Charlotte was told that she ‘may only have months left to live’, and that her chance of being cured was ‘in the single percentages area’.
A further appointment told her that surgery might be an option, with the plan to surgically remove the tumour and then use proton beam therapy on the remaining cells.
However, her surgery had to be stopped due to excessive blood loss and surgeons made the decision not to proceed further, meaning Charlotte would have to undergo radiotherapy.
During this time, she set up a fundraiser to raise money for Oracle Cancer Trust, and to put on a festival to get more money for them, last month she successfully hit her goal of £10,000.
According to the Daily Mail, Charlotte described the day of the festival as ‘extremely emotional’ and even though she ‘struggled to swallow, eat and speak properly’ from the radiotherapy she was able to sing there.
A recent scan showed that much of her cancer was gone, but doctors ‘expect it to come back’ and she is still raising money to help others (Just Giving)
A couple of weeks later, she received some good news in the form of an MRI scan which couldn’t detect any cancer remaining, which the Banbury woman said was a ‘big shock’.
She told them: “They showed me a scan with a whole patch of grey, which previously had been all white with cancer, and now it is healing bone. It’s the best news I can have.
“It’s probable that there is still some cancer remaining, but it’s too small to be made out and is likely not growing.”
Charlotte’s future will involve fresh MRI scans every three months indefinitely, saying that doctors ‘do expect it to come back’ and that this type of cancer ‘regularly recurs’.
Charlotte is continuing to raise money for Oracle, as while her initial fundraiser wrapped up after having exceeded its £10,000 target, another one which has surpassed £5,000 is still open for donations here.
Featured Image Credit: Just Giving
Joe Harker
British mum thought she had just bitten her tongue before finding out life-changing diagnosis
Lynn Hunt thought nothing of it until her husband spoke out
A woman’s life was saved after her nagging husband tipped her off to something that she needed to get checked right away.
Lynn Hunt, from the UK, Initially thought she had just ‘bitten’ her tongue when two little white spots appeared on the side, but she would shortly find out that it was a life-threatening illness instead, thanks to her husband raising the alarm.
Lynn Hunt thought she bit her tongue (Kennedy News and Media)
The mother, who posted a TikTok video of her journey, shows viewers the reality of spotting the killer disease.
Hunt showed a range of pictures of before and after her surgery, showing the progression of a tumour.
According to her, the quick thinking of her husband led to her diagnosis of right lateral tongue squamous cell carcinoma.
She said in the caption: “Photos of the start of where I thought I had bitten my tongue to find out it was right lateral tingue squamous cell carcinoma and after surgery to remove and replace with radial forearm free flap & neck dissection and radiotherapy side effect ulcers.”
She uploaded a video of her journey (Kennedy News and Media)
Hunt’s journey with tongue cancer all began when she thought she’d bitten it a couple of times, having woken up to a sore and discoloured patch.
She began: “I thought I would come on and show you some pictures of where this all started so this is a picture that I took when I woke up one morning on March 14.
“I thought I bit in my tongue- in fact, it was a couple of days before this I thought I bit my tongue and I thought I’ll it go away- and then a couple of days later, I thought ‘that’s not going well, I must have bitten it again’.”
She said: “I was sat, I think in bed, you can see I got my dressing going on. I thought, ‘oh, I’ll just take a picture on my phone and have a look at it that way’.”
The image showed two little dots of white on the side of her tongue.
Then, the next image she showed was what looked like an ulcer in the same place, which she realised was cancer.
Her husband helped her seek help (Kennedy News and Media)
Hunt explained: “On April 18 it went from those two little white dots -which got bigger- and then it went into an ulcer.”
She mentioned the ulcer to her husband, who urged her to go to the doctor, and when she questioned him, he repeated that she needed to call them in the morning.
So, she went to the doctor’s office to raise the alarm and received a biopsy just weeks later.
On May 9, she took an image three days after the biopsy, showing her tongue with stitches sticking out.
This confirmed that she indeed had tongue cancer. On May 24, she had surgery to remove a section of her tongue and replace it with a portion of her forearm.
Thankfully, she managed to heal well, as she commented on the scar ‘fading’ as she showed viewers the difference between her forearm section and the rest of her tongue.
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News Media
Britt Jones
Woman who began coughing up blood was told her ‘eyeball could explode’ before receiving devastating diagnosis
Doctors said her eye was about two weeks from bursting in her head when they removed it
A woman became ‘one of two in the world’ to lose her eye to a rare condition which could have resulted in her eyeball exploding.
Holly Swindells noticed a series of worrying symptoms including her right eye becoming red and painful, while she was also getting nosebleeds and coughing up blood.
With her symptoms getting very worrying she made several trips to see a GP and went to A&E, but they were not able to diagnose what was wrong with her and the pain became so much than she ended up becoming bedbound.
In the end, a blood test revealed she had a rare condition called granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a rare form of vasculitis, which causes inflammation of blood vessels, including in a person’s eyes.
The Bolton woman, 34, described the pain as being ‘like a red hot poker being stabbed through my head constantly’ and it reached unbearable levels.
After she was diagnosed doctors told Holly her eye could explode if they didn’t remove it. (SWNS)
Holly, a mum-of-two, eventually had to have her right eye removed after doctors told her that the pressure was so much that her eyeball was in danger of bursting.
Her nosebleeds and coughing up blood were also the result of inflammation from GPA.
With her right eye removed before it could explode, Holly now wears a glittery prosthetic in place of it.
She said: “I had no idea what GPA vasculitis was – but I was relieved that I finally knew what was wrong.
“By the time I had my eye removed, I had gone blind on that side anyway – I just wanted it out so the pain would stop. I’ve been having treatments to help with painful inflammation in my joints, but I’m not in remission yet.
“Now I want to raise awareness – a lot of people don’t know about GPA vasculitis. I lost my eye but I’ve come to accept it – and my daughter loves telling everyone about her mummy’s glitter eye.”
She’s now got a glittery prosthetic eye, and says her daughter loves it (SWNS)
The 34-year-old first started getting symptoms in December 2021 and was prescribed steroid eye drops by an optician, though they didn’t help and by February the following year the pain was in her joints and she was bedbound.
She said that at the time it ‘felt like my body was shutting down from the pain’ and things reached the point where she couldn’t take her daughter to school or lift up her infant son.
After several trips to visit doctors she called a specialist eye hospital in March 2022 which is where she got a blood test which led to her GPA vasculitis diagnosis.
The inflammation was detected in her ears, nose, sinuses, kidneys, lungs and eyes, and she was admitted to Salford Royal Hospital where she had plasma exchanges through an artery in her neck along with steroids and chemotherapy treatment.
She’s had regular treatment since then but she still struggles with symptoms, as Holly said she struggles to walk because of her joints and lungs, and has ‘had reoccurrences of my lung haemorrhages too’.
By the time her eye was removed doctors told her she’d been about two weeks away from it popping while still inside her head, and a biopsy had found it was ‘fully of inflammatory tumours’.
Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Joe Harker
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Man who felt ‘unusually tired’ was given shocking diagnosis after GP sent him straight to A&E
His bizarre symptoms includes pain, fatigue and pounding headaches
A man attending a family wedding who complained about being a little ‘fatigued’ afterwards had no idea he was suffering form a serious, underlying disease.
So, you’ve partied a little harder than you expected at a big event and you’re a bit rundown afterwards. Normal, right?
That’s initially what 32-year-old Ricky Duggal believed after experiencing exhaustion symptoms a week on from his cousin’s wedding.
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A man who complained about being fatigued ended up being diagnosed with a serious disease (Instagram/rickydentist)
In July 2023, the medical expert complained about back pain and fatigue, causing him to book a life-changing doctor’s appointment.
“I had had back pain before – dentists often get it because of our bad posture whilst working with patients,” Dugga told LeedsLive. “I went to the physio who loosened it all up but it didn’t seem to make much difference.
“I was also waking up with night sweats and I had a purple bruise on my leg.”
Duggal explained his worry intensified when he realised he couldn’t bench what he was used to at the gym.
After noticeably losing strength, pounding headaches began to manifest at the back of his head.
“This was the symptom that worried me the most,” he admitted.
Deciding to take his health into his own hands, Duggal booked in to see his GP within 10 days of exhibiting the strange symptoms.
It’s understood the Leeds native was immediately referred to a local hospital due to worries he was suffering from a bleed on the brain.
Duggal complained that he felt his doctor was ‘overreacting a bit’, causing him to dumb-down his symptoms.
When he got to A&E, he was tested for viral meningitis and had a computed tomography (CT) scan.
“I’m quite a relaxed person and still thought everything would come back fine,” he confessed to the publication.
After completing all the assigned tests, Duggal received results that showed he had a raised white blood cell count – with the doctor’s delivery of the news raising ‘alarm bells’.
Due to the worrying outcome, he was asked to stay overnight in the hospital and gave 12 vials worth of blood to be sampled.
After spending the night in the institution with his wife, Simi, doctors announced he would have to undergo a bone marrow biopsy to ‘rule out anything sinister’.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a bone marrow biopsy’s purpose is to show whether the cells present are abnormal.
It’s also a way for your healthcare provider to diagnose blood disorders or more serious diseases such as cancer.
Later, Duggal was informed that he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
The NHS has chalked ALL up as a rare type of cancer that specifically affects a person’s blood and their bone marrow, too.
While symptoms aren’t always obvious at first, they do resemble those that Duggal exhibited after his family wedding: tiredness, headaches, and pain in the bones or joints.
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The dentist was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Instagram/rickydentist)
More common symptoms of ALL include looking more pale than usual, exhibiting a high temperature, and suffering from swollen glands.
Duggal spent five weeks solid in hospital and chemotherapy within the hour after being diagnosed with ALL diagnosis on 11 August 2023.
Recounting the ordeal, the married man claimed his illness had been a ‘huge shock’ and that he credits his wife and family for seeing him through the tough time.
After being given the green light to leave hospital, he returned home where he allegedly suffered from short breathless and accepting ‘life was not as it was before’.
Soon after the dentist’s completed his first cycle of chemotherapy, doctors announced he was in remission.
Despite tests coming back clear, he has since undergone a second cycle in November, and a third a month later.
After three rounds of ALL treatment, Duggal says his life has changed dramatically.
“I’ve learnt to slow down and create a new routine, going for walks and reading books,” he said.
He added that his 2025 New Year’s Resolution would be to begin maintenance chemo in the summer, which is expected to last around two years.
You can continue to follow Ricky Duggal’s health journey on Instagram, here.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/rickydentist
Ella Scott
NHS shares cancer signs to look out for as woman who ignored ‘embarrassing symptom’ gets sad diagnosis
It’s useful to know what to look out for.
A woman who was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer ended up sharing her story in the hopes that others wouldn’t overlook symptoms as she did.
Jelena Tompkins noticed something was off in 2016, but dismissed the warning signs as she was otherwise healthy.
At her annual check up, she told her doctor about the blood and they thought it might be because of her diet, but months later as doctors tried to figure out whether a specific food was causing the blood, she went in for a colonoscopy.
Jelena thought the early symptoms may be due to her diet. (Instagram/@colorado.jelena)
The results came back as stage 3 cancer, leading her to go in for 28 days of chemotherapy and then surgery to remove the tumour, which resulted in 12 inches of her colon being removed along with 17 lymph nodes.
“I was in some of the best shape of my life. I ate healthily and never thought that cancer would strike me at such a young age,” she’d told The Patient Story of her diagnosis.
Her symptom was a bit embarrassing as her gas smelled worse than usual, but at first she put it down to her healthy, leafy diet.
She took probiotics to improve the bacteria in her gut but this did nothing to improve the smell, and it wasn’t until Jelena noticed blood in her stool that triggered her worries.
She now goes through regular scans, and shared her story in the hopes that others might spot the signs earlier.
Being aware of the possible signs is one of the best things you can do, and thankfully the NHS has a pretty clear list of the possible symptoms of bowel cancer, which you can check whenever you like.
A lot of the symptoms are to do with your poo, so blood in it is one possible sign as are changes to what you’d consider to be normal pooing for yourself.
Feeling a pain or a lump can be one of the symptoms, and you shouldn’t be embarrassed to talk about it. (Getty Stock Photo)
The NHS said if your poo feels softer or you have diarrhoea or unusual constipation those could be signs, as might needing to go to the toilet more or less then you usually would.
Feeling like you still need to go when you’ve just been is another possible symptom, as is blood coming from your rear, end even if you’ve not been to the loo.
Other symptoms can include pain in your belly, or feeling what could possibly be a lump in there.
If you’re bloating or losing weight without trying then those are other symptoms to be watching out for, as is feeling very tired for no reason.
If you have these symptoms and they persist for three weeks or more, then the NHS would like you to see a GP.
“Try not to be embarrassed. The doctor or nurse will be used to talking about these symptoms,” is their advice for those worried about discussing it.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
