MUM’S RIBS CRACKED BY TUMOURS
WHEN mum Susie Suter began suffering with pain so severe in her chest and spine that she struggled to walk, she knew it was time to see a doctor.
A series of hospital scans confirmed that cancer had spread all over her body and damaged her spine and sternum.
In fact, the disease had become so aggressive that small holes had formed in her vertebrae and the tumours had caused several of her ribs to crack.
Susie, 51, said: “I’m so grateful that I was with my mother at the time because I was deeply shocked by the news. I just couldn’t believe it. I had been fit and healthy all my life and felt so young. I thought I was looking at a terminal illness. The consultant looked devastated when he told me.”
After further tests and biopsies, Susie’s results were discussed by doctors at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny, as well as members of the All Wales Lymphoma panel, a group of experts who specialise in blood cancers in Wales.
Eventually, in August, 2013, at the age of 44, Susie was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer that develops in white blood cells called plasma cells.
“I was so relieved to have a diagnosis,” admitted mum-of-two Susie, the owner of the Gliffaes Country House Hotel in Crickhowell, Powys.
Susie had radiotherapy treatment at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff and was under the care of Nevill Hall Hospital for chemotherapy.
Doctors had advised Susie her best chance of survival would be a stem cell transplant.
In March, 2014, she underwent the transplant to help her body make new healthy blood cells after her own had been damaged by the disease.
It meant three weeks in an isolation ward while she had chemotherapy before she was given her “clean” stem cells back.
Susie, wife to James Suter, 54, and mum to Alexandra, 25, and Olivia, 23, added: “I found this part of my treatment incredibly hard. I felt so sick and tired and I lost a lot of weight and eventually all my hair.
“It took me a long time to feel myself again after this, although the medical team were excellent and helped me to get through it.”
Six months after the transplant, Susie said her energy levels had returned, and after a year she began to feel like she had done before her diagnosis.
Since then she has accomplished sporting and non-sporting challenges for charity, including a fundraising bike ride from London to Paris.
But last year she suffered a blow when she was told she had relapsed and might need another stem cell transplant in the future.
Susie currently has regular bonestrengthening treatments at Nevill Hall Hospital.
By sharing her remarkable story, Susie hopes to inspire people across Wales to donate to Cancer Research UK to get lifesaving work back on track: “Research gives me, my family and friends the hope we need,” she said.
After the cancellation of fundraising events like Race for Life, Cancer Research UK is expecting a staggering £160m drop in income in the year ahead.
As a result, the charity said it had been forced to take the difficult decision to cut £44m in research funding – but this is likely to be just the beginning.
Cassandra Miles, Cancer Research UK spokeswoman for Wales, said: “We’re grateful to Susie for helping to underline the stark reality of the current situation.
“Covid-19 put so much of our research on pause, leaving us facing a crisis where every day and every pound counts.
“With around 19,500 people diagnosed with cancer each year in Wales, we will never stop striving to create better treatments. But we can’t do it alone.
“Whether they donate, sign up to Race for Life at Home or shop at our stores – with the help of people in Wales, we believe that together we will still beat cancer. Donate now atcruk.org/give.”
Cancer Research UK was able to spend nearly £4m in Wales last year on some of the UK’s leading scientific and clinical research.