The daughter of a Derbyshire woman who died from pancreatic cancer has urged others to be vigilant for symptoms of the disease. Julie Stocks, 56, was given a terminal diagnosis in 2020, just weeks before the first Covid-19 lockdown began. Despite intense treatment, she died in December last year.
Her daughter, Emma Madden, 34, wants to prevent people from receiving a late diagnosis like her mother did. She said the main early warning sign was significant weight loss, while others include back pain and indigestion. She added that her mother later became weak and severely jaundiced.
Mrs Madden recalled: 'The best-case scenario was gallstones. 'And worse case?' Mum asked the doctor. He said 'liver cancer'. We were devastated, but we were hopeful. However, after being sent to hospital for tests, our worst case somehow became even more dire. The scan showed that mum didn't have liver cancer, she had pancreatic cancer.'
Despite her terminal diagnosis, Mrs Stocks hoped she might have surgery to remove her tumour after chemotherapy. But a trial of targeted radiotherapy was unable to make it small enough, meaning surgery was off the table. She died in hospital a week before Christmas after her symptoms worsened.
Emma said: 'There's no way to test for it, no way to detect it early and hardly any treatment options. My mum was almost eligible for surgery but the window of opportunity for this procedure is so small - too small. Early diagnosis is so important until we have better treatment options.'
Pancreatic Cancer UK says 80% of people with the disease are not diagnosed until after it has spread, and more than half die within three months of diagnosis. Chief executive Diana Jupp urged the public to learn more about the disease and not to put off seeing their GP if they have persistent symptoms.
