I feared I was being told I was going to die
THE day Loraine Furness thought she was being told she was going to die is, unsurprisingly, seared into her memory.
Some of it is clear, some an awful blur as she struggled to comprehend that her life might be over.
But six years after the diagnosis of myeloma, Loraine, from Currie in Edinburgh, is very much alive and well. And she marked her recent 60th birthday like she now savours every day – living it to the max.
It was back in 2010 that Loraine got the devastating news of her cancer.
“Looking back there were some signs that were never really picked up on,” says Loraine, who’s backing Myeloma Awareness Week which runs until Tuesday.
“I was always tired but they couldn’t find the cause and pelvic pain was put down to the menopause.”
Finally, a blood test proved conclusive although the breaking of the news was far from ideal.
“I was called into the surgery one day and if I’d have known the kind of news it was I’d have had my husband Robert with me.
“It was a locum GP who just said straight out that it was myeloma and asked if I knew what it was. I said I thought it was cancer and she said yes, it was, and that it was incurable.
“I thought then she was telling me I was going to die.
“After that it was as if there was a mist between us and I couldn’t take in what she was saying. She said she’d referred me to a haematologist and handed me a sheet of information.
“It was a total shock. I walked home in a daze, wondering how I was going to tell Robert.”
Loraine recalls holding back the tears as she broke the news. But they flowed aplenty as she then had to tell their three grown-up children, Matthew, Olivia and Christopher.
“I hadn’t said anything about the checks I’d been having so they didn’t know their mum was ill,” says Loraine.
“My mum, who was still down in Newcastle, was very ill with cancer herself at the time and I didn’t even tell her as I didn’t want her worrying about me.”
Myeloma, which affects 17,500 people across the UK, is a cancer caused by abnormal cells in the bone marrow. While there is no cure and diagnosis delays mean one in five patients die within 60 days, there are effective treatments.
Thankfully, Loraine was found to be suitable for a stem cell treatment and chemotherapy.
“They take out your own stem cells, give you really high doses of chemo and then give you your stem cells back to build your immune system up again.
“It is gruelling. It’s like they take you to the edge and then rescue you.
“It gave me two years of remission, then I needed to go through it again in 2014 and that’s kept me stable since.”
Loraine has since been able to savour her garden and enjoy her four grandkids.
“I’m just glad to be alive and so grateful for the treatment,” adds Loraine.
Visit myeloma.org.uk