Football size tumour shrank to ‘pea’
A Bath woman has told her remarkable story of recovering from a terminal cancer prognosis and how a tumour shrank from the size of a football to that of a pea.
Raine Harvey-cantrell, 69, from Odd Down, is something of a medical marvel to the “incredible” doctors and nurses who looked after her at the RUH.
In November 2014, Raine’s husband of 20 years, 63-year-old Quil, took her to A&E after watching her “go grey in colour” one evening.
After “every test available” they were told the devastating news that Raine had cancer and that it appeared too far advanced for much to be done.
The couple spent the night holding hands and talking about what to do and decided not to burden their families immediately with the news as they just wanted to spend “every waking minute with each other”.
Raine has spoken of her symptoms in the hope others will get checked out and praised the exceptional oncology team, her husband Quil, Macmillan nurses and her vicar at Bath Abbey for seeing her through the ordeal during which her mother die d.
She said: “I had such varied symptoms for about a year stomach pains, temperature changes, cold sweats, feeling really dreadful.
“I had been going backwards and forwards to the doctors and had about four examinations but nothing was ever found - I think because they hadn’t done a blood test for cancer as that would have sussed it out straight away.
“I was very stressed at the time doing my charity work so they put it down to overdoing it.
“The morning before I ended up in A&E I’d actually been speaking to a consultant who said he’d send me for a CT scan.”
After tests Raine was given devastating new. She said: “They said it was really bad and perhaps past the point where much could be done. I was extremely ill and was told I was 98 per cent terminal within hours of being there.
“Quil and I decided we wouldn’t tell anyone because there was nothing anyone could do, and we wanted to spend every waking hour with each other. We just held hands together.
“Eventually we started to discuss my funeral and what we’d do.”
Raine was found to have diffuse large non-hodgkin-b cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. She had a large tumour “the size of a football” hanging off the wall of her stomach, which “could have burst at any moment” which was another complication.
Raine said: “If that had happened, they said they couldn’t get me to surgery in time to save me. This tumour did not show up on any of the previous scans.”
Yet a glimmer of hope was offered with a clinical trial. It was experimental and had no guarantees of success but Raine chose to undergo the treatment. However a couple of weeks later after chemotherapy she was told her condition had not improved.
Raine had also had a jejunostomy procedure because the scar tissue from the chemo had caused damage to her stomach and she was constantly sick. She had a nasal tube fitted to accommodate the acid from her stomach and was told she would never eat food or drink normally again and would be fed by an electric pump for the rest of her life.
Yet all hope was not lost as doctors found a second clinical trail to put Raine on, which offered a one in ten chance of survival.
She said the doctors and nurses had become like family.
She said: “Quil was there all the time, he was constantly getting treats for the nurses and he used to eat in the canteen with them.”
She said that during that time her mum, Dot Fear, became ill with an infection and was admiotted to hospital but was expected to make a full recovery.
But she had a heart attack before going home.
Raine said: “I felt I needed to be by her bedside immediately but that day I had just had the stem cell transplant and I really was quite poorly but with the help of the doctors and the matron they dressed me up again and wheeled me to be with Mum.
“I was on one side and Quil was on the other. She spoke softly when I got there so she knew we were there and three hours later she quietly slipped away.”
Raine then fell into a “delirious state” for several days in reaction to the stem cell treatment. She recovered enough to be taken to her mother’s funeral service and then returned to hospital.
Raine continued on a gruelling treatment regime which saw her taking steroids, losing her hair, having over 30 blood transfusions and feeling very unwell.
Quil was her “rock” during those times, with him constantly coming up with ideas to brighten her day.
“The doctors gave me confidence, Macmillan Nurses gave me knowledge and courage and with my faith that gave me hope.
“When I came out of hospital, I was so weak I couldn’t walk so I was in a wheelchair. I had the nasal tube and all my feeding equipment on the side of the wheelchair. But I was out.
“From home I then had to go through 18 sessions of radiotherapy and was in a wheelchair for quite some time before I was strong enough to walk anyway.
“My loving husband had brought the bedroom downstairs into the sunlounge, and we had a downstairs toilet, so I was set for a slow recovery.
“Christmas Eve I went to Cheltenham for my PET to see if the trial had worked and in the first week of January 2016, I was given the all clear.”
The treatments had successfully shrunk the tumour and got rid of the cancer.
Raine said: “It went from being as big as football, filled with blood, to being the size of a pea. The radiotherapy could then pin point it exactly and get rid of it. It was a miracle that all the treatments fell into place.
“In July 2017 my nasal tube and feeding tube were removed as the blockage in my stomach due to the scar tissue had miraculously cleared away on its own, much to my consultant surgeon’s surprise and delight, so it was goodbye to the pump and bags and back on oral food and water intake, a very low process to start with but all good now.
“My very first meal was - one pea, one flake of fish and half a teaspoon of mash - Heaven.”
Raine has said that she wouldn’t be here today with out the incredible staff of the NHS.
She said: “I owe them my life. I have had a good life since coming out of hospital and thank God I’m alive.
“The team gave me a life, I’d want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. I will be eternally grateful to the years they have given me to spend with Quil.
“He decided he would give something back to the RUH and the ward I was in and by now my doctors and nurses were close friends and some were extended family. So, he gave three days a week of his time to the William Budd Ward, for nearly two years.”
Since her cancer journey, Raine has annually done charitable events to raise money for both the RUH and Macmillan.
Raine recently held her fifth Macmillan coffee morning and raised £1,445.50.
You can text to donate £5 to the Macmillan coffee morning fundraiser by sending CUPPA to 70550.