A CASTLEWELLAN woman has urged the public to be aware of the symptoms of oesophageal cancer, following her own diagnosis.
Leanne Molloy (35) initially thought that something wasn’t the way it should be before the start of lockdown, so she decided to visit the doctors to run some tests.
“I suffer from anxiety, so when I started to feel that my heart was missing a beat, I had an ECG,” said Leanne.
“Unfortunately, the first lockdown happened, everything went by the wayside and I didn’t get the results.”
Leanne began to notice other signs indicating there may be a problem when she struggled to swallow food without it getting caught in her throat.
“This started happening on a regular basis. Sometimes I’d eat and be fine, but one evening I was eating soup and bread and I knew there was something wrong,” she said.
“I increasingly had to stand up and ‘jiggle’ my body until I felt the food passing. Sometimes I had to make myself sick just to get it up.”
Leanne, who works as a pharmacist, noted there were things that she could eat with no difficulty, but other things would stick.
Brian, Leanne’s husband, would look after their daughter so she could go out of the room and jiggle to help her food go down.
“I was always a fast eater but I didn’t chew properly, so I began to eat more slowly and not at my husband’s pace,” said Leanne.
“I was changing my habits to suit the symptoms, rather than getting the symptoms sorted.”
Over time Leanne spoke to her GP, telling him about pain which was going into her shoulder blade. She also started to lose weight, which she attributed to not eating properly, so the GP decided to run more tests and arranged for Leanne to go to the hospital.
“I had the scope but, because I didn’t get sedated, I was aware of what was going on and I noticed that two nurses were going over the notes and talking,” said Leanne.
The nurses ran more blood tests before moving both Brian, who was in the waiting area, and Leanne into the same room to discuss what they had discovered.
It was there the couple were told that it was very likely that Leanne had cancer at the bottom of her oesophagus, a diagnosis which made her “feel numb”.
Despite the fact that she’d just received life-changing news, a consultant advised Leanne to continue working as it would take a week for the results to come through.
“People were coming into the pharmacy and I was walking round in a daze,” she said.
“Then, one day I got a phone call to go home as it had been confirmed that I had oesophageal cancer. After that, life was just a whirlwind of tests, scans and waiting on results,” she continued.
“Waiting for the results was actually the worst thing, we decided not to tell our daughter because we were in the middle of the pandemic and I wasn’t going to put an eight year-old through any more.”
Leanne began chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumour, but was immediately concerned that everything would be thrown up into the air with the pandemic.
Fortunately, she was able to receive four cycles of the treatment before having her surgery, followed by another four cycles afterwards.
“I had the four slots in March and April, and then in May I had to build myself back up for surgery on June 16,” she said.
“They told me I’d be in ICU for three days, but I was in overnight and back on to the ward the following day. I was in and out in the week and I was back out walking six weeks after the surgery,” she continued.
“I think that, when it comes to cancer treatment, you have to push your limits to get on with it. I always knew the second cycle of chemotherapy would be bad, the first one nearly killed me and I nearly gave up.”
Leanne was also faced with the possibility of the cancer spreading to the lymph nodes, but thankfully this didn’t occur.
“When I heard that my tumour was only one millimetre away from the cavity wall, I knew that someone had been looking down on me. One millimetre is a wee dot but if it had got in there, I wouldn’t have been eligible for surgery,” she said.
Following her surgery and chemotherapy, Leanne’s family and friends rallied around to help her including her mother and Brian who both took time of work.
Leanne’s daughter’s school helped assist in anyway they could to make sure she was still getting vital education throughout the family’s tough time.
Working in the pharmacy has convinced Leanne that pharmacists and their teams have a role to play in spotting the signs of potential oesophageal cancer.
“We all notice people coming in and buying reflux and heartburn remedies on a regular basis, so it may be an idea for pharmacists advising someone who repeat buys to ensure they have a diagnosis from their GP rather than self medicating and ignoring symptoms,” she said.
“Cancer is a scary word to hear, but if it’s caught early, there are a lot of treatment options available now. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s all about getting it early and knowing your body,” she continued.
“I’m so thankful for being given a second chance. It’s been a hell of a roller coaster, but I’ve had more good days than bad days.”
For further information go to ogcancerni.com, follow #OGCancerNI, call 07568 157450 or make an appointment to see your local GP today.