Mother diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer after mistaking symptom for side effect of diet – she has months to live
A mother-of-four struck by terminal stomach cancer and given months to live has warned of the easy-to-dismiss symptom that she mistook for a complication of her weight loss diet.
Camilla Chapman, 40, from Chichester, West Sussex, embarked on a low-calorie slimming diet early last year, which featured a large number of liquid meals like soups and shakes.
But she soon found she had trouble swallowing solid foods, a classic symptom of stomach cancer.
Unbothered, the nursery owner assumed it was merely a sign her muscles had ‘become lazy’ while chewing as a result of her primarily liquid diet.
The few solid foods she could manage would ‘quite often get stuck’, she told The Independent.
‘I ignored it. I thought my body was just used to swallowing liquid and not food.’
It was only in June, when Ms Chapman noticed a small lump underneath her jaw, that she visited her GP for advice.
A subsequent scan found ‘nothing was wrong’ and put her mind at ease for several months.
Camilla Chapman, a mother of four diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, has told how she initially dismissed the tell-tale symptom as part of a new weight-loss diet
Speaking on social media she said NHS medics told her while they could offer chemotherapy this would only potentially extend her life by about 9 to 15 months.
As pictured above, having no energy, unintentionally losing weight, constant indigestion, difficulty swallowing, feeling sick and a lump at the top of your tummy are all warning signs and symptoms of stomach cancer
However, when the swallowing problems continued, she decided to return to her GP for advice in January of this year.
This time, Ms Chapman was referred for a blood test and then, three weeks later, an endoscopy, where a flexible camera is inserted down the throat to examine the stomach.
A sample of the tissue from her stomach was taken and analysed and, on February 1, Ms Chapman was given the devastating news she had stomach cancer.
A CT scan then revealed her disease had spread to her lungs, liver and lymph nodes, putting her in the advanced stages of the illness that cannot be cured.
‘The doctor told us there was nothing he can do,’ she said.
‘Surgery isn’t an option and chemo may give us a bit more time but overall my life would be over within a year.’
She has now urged others not to dismiss difficulties swallowing.
‘It can be just a small change, maybe how you swallow or sound, but I would tell anyone who had the same symptoms as me to just go and get it checked out.’
Other symptoms of stomach cancer include heartburn or acid reflux, nausea, frequent burping, and feeling full very quickly after eating.
Ms Chapman said she didn’t experience any of these problems.
Ms Chapman, who has four sons aged eight, seven, five and three, has decided not to undergo end-of-life chemotherapy.
‘Unfortunately I am unable to have any immunotherapy and the only option for me is palliative chemo, this only has a 50 per cent chance of slowing things but will also make me sick. I don’t want to become a sick mummy,’ she said.
‘I can’t even imagine not being here to see them grow up.’
She is seeking to raise £100,000 to have private treatment at a clinic overseas via an online fundraiser.
‘I really need to get some money in quickly so I can get this treatment booked and give me a chance of surviving, because I need to be here,’ she said.
About 6,500 patients in Britain and 30,000 in the US are diagnosed with stomach cancer each year.
The disease kills about 4,000 Britons and 11,000 Americans per annum.
If caught in its earliest stages, the majority of stomach cancer patients (65 per cent) will survive a decade after their diagnosis according to charity Cancer Research UK.
However, for stage four patients, 10-year survival drops to just one in five.
