Docs said illness was all in my head. It was cancer
Mum’s aches, weight loss and sore throat were ‘dismissed as anxiety’
A MUM who was told her weight loss, body aches and persistent sore throat were “all in her head” was diagnosed with thyroid cancer – after complaining of symptoms for five years.
Kay Richards said she was made to believe her symptoms were due to severe health anxiety and depression.
The 40-year-old, from Paisley, said she knew something wasn’t right for years and was desperate to get to the bottom of it.
She added: “Every day I felt so bad. I couldn’t have possibly been making my symptoms up.
“My gut feeling was that it was something sinister. I just wanted to be taken seriously.”
Kay, who is a single mum to two-year-old Kai, was referred for counselling. But she said: “I didn’t need a counsellor, I needed a thorough scan.”
She said doctors told her blood work and a gastroscopy showed no abnormalities.
Kay added: “I was basically told they had ran all the tests they could and it was all coming from my anxiety.
“They made me feel like I was going off my head. One doctor even looked at me and said, ‘Kay, you don’t have cancer’.”
After years of being in pain, Kay decided to pay for a private consultation at Glasgow’s BMI Ross Hall Hospital.
She was referred for an MRI scan in June, when doctors found cancer in her thyroid. She said: “Obviously, being told I had cancer was awful but I also felt relieved to finally know what had been wrong with me.”
Kay underwent surgery at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on July 29 to remove her thyroid – but she is still feeling poorly and has now found a lump in her neck.
She said: “I’m still waiting on my doctors getting back to me about having a follow-up scan.”
Renfrewshire health board declined to comment on the case.