Ex-PA blamed headaches on divorce stress... then found out it was leukaemia
‘Would have died in a matter of days’
WHEN Kate Stallard started to suffer from throbbing headaches and exhaustion, she put it down simply to the stress of a recent divorce.
It was only after she collapsed at home, barely able to walk, that doctors told her she had a rare form of leukaemia – and could die in a matter of days.
After separating from her husband, Miss Stallard, 32, had started going to the gym regularly and lifting weights.
However, she constantly felt tired, even having to stop for a rest while walking her dogs.
She began to suffer severe headaches and bruises started appearing in odd places such as the back of her hands. Miss Stallard had initially put these down to bumps at the gym but, as a precaution, she signed up to have a blood test.
Two days later, however, she collapsed and was taken to hospital, where tests revealed she had acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), a rare form of blood cancer.
She started chemotherapy immediately and has since been told she is in remission.
But, because the treatment began straight away, there was no time to freeze her eggs and she is now infertile. Miss Stalresults, lard, from Worcestershire, said: ‘That’s been one of the hardest parts and most horrific side effects for me.
‘I know adoption and so on is an option, and that I had to have the treatment to stay alive, but I still need to grieve.’
Miss Stallard, a former personal assistant, separated from her husband after 18 months of marriage. They had been in a relationship for ten years.
Following the split she began to feel increasingly unwell. ‘I started getting throbbing headaches, where I could literally hear my heartbeat,’ she said.
‘I was working out a lot, but [I was] so tired that I wasn’t getting any fitter no matter how much I trained. I put a lot of it down to divorce stress.’
In September 2016 the bruises started spreading so she went to see a doctor and asked to book a blood test.
But, before she could have one, she collapsed at home and had to crawl up the stairs to her bathroom, where she called NHS 111 and arranged an emergency appointment.
‘I got there about 1am. They took one look at me and knew something was really wrong,’ she said.
‘I went home to wait for the and around two hours later, my phone rang again with the doctor telling me I was seriously ill, and needed to get to A&E fast.’
Her sister Lindsay, 37, drove her to Worcestershire Royal Hospital where she received further tests including a bone marrow biopsy. A few hours later doctors broke the news that she had leukaemia and sepsis – and that, without immediate treatment, she would die within a few days. Miss Stallard, whose father died of prostate cancer, began her first round of chemotherapy just two days later. ‘I was told the type of chemotherapy drug I was to have can affect fertility,’ she said. ‘One of my first questions was, “Can I freeze my eggs?” But doctors told me that the process takes a few weeks, and I wouldn’t survive it. It was devastating.’
She stayed in hospital for six weeks and had three cycles of chemotherapy before doctors told her she was in remission.
But in February 2017 she started suffering double vision and later found out the cancer had returned in her central nervous system.
Miss Stallard then had another 17 weeks of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
She has been in remission since August 2017 but is still being closely monitored.
Now she is working with charity Leukaemia Care on a campaign to raise awareness of signs of the disease – including breathlessness, night sweats and unexplained bruising – via special symptoms cards.
For information or to order a symptoms card, visit www.spotleukaemia.org.uk