My mission
I found your article What’s Upsetting Your Tummy (issue 264) interesting, but must point out that these symptoms are also typical of pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013, my symptoms were acid reflux, indigestion, unexplained weight loss and abdominal tenderness, as well as lower back pain on the left, feeling full after eating only a small amount of food, loss of appetite and itchy skin. Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed too late for treatment, the survival rate is very low with only four per cent surviving more than five years, and symptoms are often misdiagnosed as IBS, gallstones, gastritis or indigestion. As there are no simple tests for pancreatic cancer, symptoms are often treated as non-life threatening and only explored as a last resort. Although I was diagnosed as inoperable, I responded well to chemotherapy and radiotherapy and my tumour shrank. I’m quite well, but still inoperable and on palliative care. My mission is to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer in the time I have left.