‘I thought I had norovirus, now I’ve been given a year to live’
‘Bug’ turned out to be bowel cancer
WHEN Linda Smethurst was struck down by a horrible stomach bug, she assumed she had caught norovirus from a colleague at work.
The beauty therapist, from Rochdale, suffered with the illness for around four days before she eventually started to feel better.
But the mystery bug returned just two weeks later, leaving the 54-year-old wondering whether she was just very unlucky.
However, alarm bells started to ring when the illness came back several more times, prompting Linda to book an appointment to visit a doctor.
It was March 2022 when the mum-of-four tried to see her local GP for the first time, eventually securing herself a slot six weeks later.
By that time, she was in a lot of pain and was struggling to eat or go to the toilet properly. The doctor asked a nurse to contact Linda and she was called into hospital for checks.
Medics also believed she was suffering from a vomiting bug but decided to refer her for an ultrasound scan to be sure.
After five hours of waiting for results which never arrived, Linda gave up and decided to go home. By this point, she was losing weight rapidly.
A doctor advised her to go back to A&E and the mum agreed.
On arrival at hospital, she vomited up what appeared to be a dark green fluid and was rushed to see a surgeon.
Medics finally agreed to carry out a CT scan which revealed a 6cm blockage in her bowel. The blockage was removed and sent for a biopsy and Linda didn’t hear anything for seven weeks.
“The amount of time it took, I thought I was going to get the results back and it would be fine,” she told our sister paper the Manchester Evening News. “I thought no news is good news.”
But it wasn’t good news. When Linda finally heard back from the hospital, her worst fears were confirmed. The results showed she had bowel cancer.
The mum had an operation to remove the blockage in late August 2022 and was told she could have hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the future, which
is treatment combined with surgery to fight cancers in the abdomen. The surgery was the only option Linda had to save her life.
While awaiting her admission date, Linda received several followup calls to ensure she wasn’t experiencing any other symptoms. In February 2023, she noticed she was suffering from constipation.
Linda was sent for blood tests which tragically showed tumour markers, indicating the presence of cancer.
“I went to see another surgeon and a PET scan showed cancer cells were reacting to glucose in my bowel near the surgery site,” Linda said. “It lit up like Blackpool Illuminations.
“The scans came back and showed cancer in all these different areas. It took until July this year to start any chemotherapy.”
Tragically, tests showed the cancer had also spread to Linda’s liver.
This means the chemotherapy failed to work and her potentially life-saving surgery is no longer an option.
Doctors say the mum could now have just 12 months left to live.
“My feeling is anger,” Linda said. “I don’t let [my prognosis] come into my mind. I haven’t allowed that headspace.
“There has been the occasion approaching Christmas and I think, will this be my last Christmas? I don’t want other people to go through this.”
Linda has been offered palliative chemotherapy to give her a better quality of life. However, there’s just a 20 per cent chance it will work and could only prolong her life by around 18 months.
She’s now hoping to raise funds to travel to Germany where alternative cancer treatment is offered.
The fundraiser, set up by her daughter Emma, reads: “Our mum is the most wonderful person, she is kind, funny, thoughtful and would do anything for anyone.
“Our mum is also a nanny to three very young children, aged three, five and nine, and she is loved so much by them. We cannot settle for what [we have been told] and we need to continue fighting and getting her alternative treatment so we and her grandchildren can have her for many more years to come.”