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When Laura Nixon went to an out of hours doctor in Janurary with a painful stomach the doctor told her she likely had a UTI.
The 59-year-old was given antibiotics to treat her suspected urinary tract infection, and was then sent on her way.
It wasn’t the first time she’d saught help for a painful tummy. She’d been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (inflammatory bowel disease) back in April 2024, but her pain had been steadily growing worse.
But what her doctors failed to realise was that Laura was struggling with a condition far more sinister.
She’d later discover she had stage four pancreatic cancer – and just five years to live.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever processed it,’ Laura, a Windsor resident, explains. ‘I go to bed at night and think if I wake up in the morning, it’s a bonus.
‘I can’t allow myself to be sad. There’s no point in being angry with people as you can’t go back, but I worry about people going through the same thing.’
When the antibiotics for her supposed urinary tract infection hadn’t worked, the doctor re-prescribed them. Laura had wrongly assumed he was also checking for cancer markers, because she’d had her gallbladder out for that very reason.
The pain persisted and eventually she took herself to A&E two months later, but was told she’d have to wait a while for a CT scan.
Instead, since she was about to take her mum on a cruise, she decided to have some health checks done with her GP. After an exam, her doctor called her straight away and told her to get an urgent colon scan.
Then, on July 11, at 3.30pm, Laura was told the earth-shattering news that she had stage four pancreatic cancer and only five years left to live.
Laura didn’t want to wait and rely on the NHS, so she’s now in Germany preparing to undergo alternative private transarterial chemoembolization treatment. This delivers chemo directly to the tumour, rather than throughout the body.
‘My oncologist said they don’t offer this treatment on the NHS because they don’t know if it works,’ she explains.
Standard NHS treatment is chemotherapy and surgery, and while transarterial chemoembolization treatment is available privately in the UK, it costs far more than it does elsewhere.
The 59-year-old is fundraising to recoup some of the £65,000 cost of the treatment in Frankfurt, which will take two-and-a-half weeks, although much is being funded by her mother who is using her life savings.
‘This private treatment will aim to starve the tumour which should relieve some of the pain,’ Laura explains.
‘They’re going to take some blood to produce hormones from it and then they block oxygen to my pancreas and suffocate it to stop it getting any bigger.’
Following this, Laura will move to Munich for a fortnight for additional intervention.
Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is a cancer that’s found anywhere in the pancreas – the organ in the top part of your tummy.
It helps you digest your food and makes hormones, such as insulin.
Symptoms include:
the whites of your eyes or your skin turn yellow (jaundice), and you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to feeling tired or having no energy a high temperature, or feeling hot or shivery feeling or being sick diarrhoea or constipation, or other changes in your poo pain at the top part of your tummy and your back, which may feel worse when you’re eating or lying down and better when you lean forward symptoms of indigestion, such as feeling bloatedYou’re more likely to get pancreatic cancer at 65 and over.
Source: NHS
‘I’ve got two treatments on my lungs and the last day they’ll do my liver,’ she adds. ‘They’re going to do intensive injections on the tumours as they’ve spread around my body.’
She’s got no support system while she’s away from home and she’s starting to become worried about her loved ones.
‘I’m on my own, I can’t take my mum with me as she needs to look after the cats and my house is on the market,’ Laura says.
‘I’ve borrowed the money off my mum to pay for this and that’s her entire life savings gone now. But, the treatment should give me a 40% to 60% chance of living two years.
‘It’s still palliative, but I’m not worried about dying, I’m worried about who I leave behind.’
While the treatment isn’t guaranteed to work, Laura doesn’t blame her GP for not catching it earlier.
‘It’s been a complete mess,’ she sighs. ‘I don’t blame my GP at all – he’s been so good and pressing for answers for a long time.
‘He’s amazing – I feel so sad for him as he’s completely devastated. I just have to accept it and hope for the best.’
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