A nurse manager has been given just months to live after medics wrongly dismissed her cancer symptoms as side-effects of having the Covid jab.
Katie Pritchard, 37, is now having to crowdfund £200,000 for private treatment after she was twice misdiagnosed before finding out she had cervical cancer. The mum-of-two went to her GP after finding a lump but was told there was 'nothing to worry about' and her symptoms may have been down to the Pfizer vaccine.
She was also told that it may be a prolapsed bladder from having children and was left insulted by another suggestion it was an STI despite 17 years with her partner. Unhappy with her treatment, Katie independently scheduled an appointment with a gynaecologist and was diagnosed with cervical cancer later that same month.
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But she was then forced to wait an agonising three months for her treatment to begin - by which point the cancer had spread. Katie began five weeks of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and brachytherapy in April last year and was told the treatment was a success.
But, in December, after undergoing further scans, she received the heartbreaking news that her cancer had returned and she has now been given months to live. At the start of this year, Katie was diagnosed with lung, shoulder, spine, and pelvic cancer and started palliative chemotherapy three weeks ago.
Katie will now tie the knot with her long term partner Tom Cronin, 35, a teacher, in an emotional ceremony next Monday (February 27). The couple are also trying to raise money to fund a potentially life-prolonging drug not available on the NHS so they can spend more time together as a family.
Katie, of Tysoe, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire., said: "When I first went to the doctors with my symptoms, I knew something wasn’t right. I had to really push for the nurse practitioner to examine me for the second time in my appointment and she told me there was nothing to worry about.
“I knew it was more than a bladder prolapse and I had been with my soon-to-be husband for 17 years, so I knew it wasn’t an STI. I was left with no faith, and it didn’t make any sense so that is when I booked myself into see a gynaecologist.
“I was seen urgently within 10 days after making my appointment. After examining me, he asked if I had come to the appointment alone and from this moment, I knew what he was going to say – I knew it was cancer.
“My gynaecologist was astonished that this hadn’t been picked up by the nurse practitioner and rang them to tell them he was very angry about my misdiagnosis. I work in healthcare myself, so I knew it was something more than a bladder prolapse or an STI.”
Katie says she was then ‘passed about’ from appointment to appointment for two-and-a-half months waiting for treatment to start at Coventry Hospital. Feeling frustrated, she referred herself to Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust last April where she worked and began treatment almost immediately.
Throughout her five weeks of intense chemotherapy Katie was sick almost every day and lost two stone. She had to make multiple trips to the hospital for IV fluids and had two blood transfusions but in June was told the cancer had gone.
Katie was able to enjoy a family wedding and made such a good recovery she even returned to playing rugby Stratford RFC. But, more heartache was to follow after a routine check-up scan in September revealed a small dot on her lung, indicating something was wrong.
Katie, who works at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxon, added: “At the time, I had been suffering from a nasty chest infection, so doctors thought it was just some of the infection showing up on the scan. They conducted a biopsy called a bronchoscopy which looked at the issue with a camera and again reassured me it was still just an infection.
“It wasn’t until I started getting excruciating pain in my shoulder that they decided to examine further. In this time, the growth in my lung, which was wrongly suggested as an infection, had grown considerably.”
Last week, Tom set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for a private immunotherapy drug for Katie to take alongside her ongoing treatment. The drug named Pembrolizumab costs an eye-watering £6,000 every three weeks and so far, the fundraising page has racked up over £107,000 in donations.
Katie, who is mum to sons Percy, four, and Cass, two, added: “I started the palliative chemotherapy three weeks ago. I will continue on it for as long as my body can tolerate it or as long as I live. I am so overwhelmed by the support and donations we have received. I have the more beautiful, friends, family and work colleagues surrounding me and supporting me.
“I am so excited to marry Tom and it has been a long time coming. We worked together in the village pub 17 years ago and he must have charmed me somehow as we are getting married in two weeks. I remember for our first Valentine’s Day he made me a card out of beer mats and candle, and I remember thinking how lovely that was and the rest is history.
“I want to tell people how important it is to live your life and to go on lots of adventures. Turn off Netflix and go outside and enjoy yourself. You need to live for now and not for the future. I can’t thank my wonderful family and wonderful Tom for everything they have done.”
Katie and Tom will marry at Stratford-upon-Avon Registry Office ahead of a reception at The Royal Oak pub, where they met as work colleagues 17 years ago. Tom said: “The day that they said Katie was going to have months rather than years, I proposed at the spot where we first met.
“It’s a lane near to the Royal Oak pub in Whatcote, where Katie’s family lived when we met as teenagers. It has been a horrific time. It feels like the entire last year has been waiting, it’s extremely frustrating.
“Waiting for treatment, waiting for results, waiting for something else. Inevitably at the end of every single wait was the worst news possible. We’ve got a to-do list, which includes a will and making videos for the boys. So, if the worst does happen, we’re prepared for it.
“We’re being realists and positive at the same time. It's a weird balance."
Shipston Medical Centre, where Katie says she was misdiagnosed, said they could not comment on individual cases. A spokesperson for the practice said: "We are unable to comment on an individual’s care and treatment, but we would encourage Ms Pritchard to get in touch with us so we can investigate her concerns."
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