‘It was bizarre we both had it’
WIDOWED PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENT HOPES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE DISEASE
A HAMPSHIRE mum-of-two who survived an aggressive form of cancer has spoken of the heartbreak of losing her “lovely” husband to the same disease that she had.
Sue Wood, from Farnborough, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December last year and within a couple of weeks her husband James – who was known as Jim – was diagnosed with it too.
Medics discovered that Sue had a two centimetre tumour at the head of her pancreas and Jim had a three centimetre long tumour in the same place in his pancreas.
Sue’s tumour was successfully removed in an operation, but Jim couldn’t have the same procedure as his tumour was too close to a portal vein.
It was hoped that chemotherapy treatment would shrink the cancer in Jim’s body and take the tumour away from the delicate vein and therefore allow surgeons to operate on him. After treatment, Sue was given the all-clear. But sadly Jim was given the awful news that his cancer had become terminal, following four months of chemotherapy.
The cancer in Jim’s body had tragically spread to other organs and Jim sadly passed away in the summer.
November 19 marks World Pancreatic Cancer Day and as part of an awareness campaign Sue has spoken to Hampshire Live about her tragic story and to stress the importance for people to get themselves checked out as quickly as possible if they show any symptoms of having pancreatic cancer.
Sue said: “It’s been really difficult watching Jim go through a really horrendous time. Compared to my experience, which was plain sailing, he had all the complications you could probably have.
“To watch him go through that when he was such a fit man - having been in the Army, been a triathlete in his younger days and been in the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo in 1984 – was heart-wrenching for the whole family. Someone you see so fit, you think it will go on forever.
“Our sons having seen me and the success I had, they were hoping for the same for their dad. But sadly it wasn’t to be. It’s been quite traumatic.
“To add to the heartache, Jim’s own father died the week of his funeral. So it’s been a horrendous time for our family. We are still standing, but it’s not been easy.”
Jim had joined the Army at 16 and later in his career, he was given the nickname of ‘The Legend’ by his Army colleagues because of his impressive sporting background.
He was two years older than Sue, who he had met when she was in her late teens.
The couple were married for 43 years, having wed on August 6 in 1977 at Sherbourne Abbey, where Jim had been a chorister in his youth.
They have two sons – Adam, 38, who is an anaesthetist and Elliot, 30, who is a postman.
Sue stressed the importance of getting checking out for cancer and said: “Early diagnoses of pancreatic cancer is crucial because me and my husband had the exact same symptoms and we were seen in the same time-frame.
“But the difference in our cancers was that mine was operable at two centimetres, but his was three centimetres and next to a portal vein and so it couldn’t be operated on at that particular time.
“So we went down two different routes. I went straight in for a whipple operation, which was very successful thankfully, and he was on chemo in the hope that he could then shrink the tumour so he could then have a whipple operation.
“But his chemo didn’t work and the cancer had spread considerably and so quickly.
“He was diagnosed on December 10 2019, he finished his chemo in April this year and in that time the chemo that had no effect at all and it had gone from three centimetres to four centimetres and it had spread to his liver and other organs.
“Regarding symptoms, you wouldn’t think we had anything wrong with us. We both had pain in the right shoulder and they call that ‘associated pain’.
“When I went to the jaundice clinic, they said this could be serious. I said I have more problems in my shoulder than anywhere else and they said we classify that as ‘associated pain’ than the actual cancer. It felt like a muscular pain you would get from going to the gym.
“Jim had been to yoga and I said he looked great. But then he started to go yellow and I thought, ‘What’s happening?’
“They didn’t diagnose him until two weeks after that. It was bizarre we both had it.”
Sue added: “We both had chemo together for six months. At Easter time, I got the all clear and four days later he got the news that his tumour hadn’t shrunk ‘and it’s sadly spread to your liver and other organs’.
“It was really horrible. I felt awful because we got two different sets of news and it’s very hard to celebrate when someone so very close to you has not got the same diagnoses.
“It was pretty traumatic and I still suffer a lot from ‘survivor’s guilt’ - with this you think, ‘Why did I survive? and you didn’t?’ It was a tragic outcome for him.
“I’m still getting monitored and I’ve had another CT scan since and it again came back fine which is wonderful. But I think, ‘Why am I so fortunate? and he wasn’t?’”
Jim could have had further chemo treatment, which might have saved his life, but he faced complications which were brought on by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sue added: “Covid-19 caused complications for us because when we finished our first lot of chemo, there was an opportunity to have another type of chemo. One we could have on the NHS and the other we could have privately. But they had to be done as a combination.
“The NHS don’t do one of those chemos anymore – you have to have that privately because they don’t fund it. So Jim could have got the NHS chemo and the private chemo together in the private hospital, but because of Covid they wouldn’t let him split hospitals.
“He could have had the NHS chemo in an NHS hospital, but because he would go into a private hospital they wouldn’t let him. So that stopped him having the double combination of chemo that he needed to have. And they wouldn’t transport the private chemotherapy over to the NHS hospital because they said it has to be made on site.
“Although it would have cost us quite a lot of money - and we were prepared to pay that - they wouldn’t let us split hospitals. It was upsetting. It didn’t make sense that staff could work in both hospitals (because they had a Covid test), but Jim couldn’t. It begged the question why Jim couldn’t have the treatment if he had a Covid test? So we don’t know if that would have contributed to the fact that his life was shortened because we have got no evidence of if that would have worked or not.
“Both hospitals are attached to each as well. So it was frustrating because they wouldn’t shift on it.
“It was hoped that he could have the chemo in the Royal and for the Covid situation to have eased up so he could start having the combination of them and they would let him in. The chemo he had didn’t do anything and the cancer spread. I felt helpless because I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Asked if she had a message for the Government in order to improve survival rates for other sufferers, Sue said: “This is a cancer that is a silent killer and it is a cancer that needs a lot of money to investigate it.
“If you look at the percentage of people getting it, it seems to be rising. I know it’s difficult to detect it because the symptoms are so vague, but more money should be channelled towards that to look at ways of investigating the symptoms, background and history.
“It’s getting more common and the prognosis is probably not that better than it was 25 years ago. We need to focus on that a lot more.”
Sue worked for Services for Young Children Department at Hampshire County Council. She planned to retire in December 2019 to spend more time with Jim.
Sue added: “It wasn’t to be sadly. I just wish there was a way to detect the cancer earlier. Having seen my husband go through it, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”