A Scots mum has told how she was first diagnosed with a form of incurable blood cancer after going to the doctor with a number of symptoms including swollen legs.
Jackie Macdonald paid her GP a visit to inquire about "really swollen legs" and a UTI however it wasn't after a number of trips that she was diagnosed with myeloma.
The 58-year-old was training for the Caledonian Challenge at the time and was going through a tough exercise routine in order for her to get ready for the event. It meant her symptoms were showing up “in a more dramatic way”, making it difficult to diagnose.
She told Edinburgh Live : "It started with me having really swollen legs but I was walking 80 miles a week so I thought it was the walking. I had also been to the doctor with what I thought was UTI – it just felt uncomfortable."
After attending another doctor at the same practice a couple of months later Jackie eventually got a diagnosis of myeloma and AL amyloidosis.
The mum-of-three added: "It’s a difficult cancer to diagnose – to be on the pathway is quite tricky. It’s a series of circumstantial presentation you go to the doctor with. You don’t have a lump or something concrete. The bundle of symptoms is nebulous.
'It was all a total surprise. It’s incurable and it will always keep coming back. They liken it to a dripping tap and you just hope the tap will stay nice and tight for 10 years, 15 years.”
The Edinburgh woman was in remission for several years but relapsed in 2021 and still manages her condition to this day. Macdonald said: “I feel rubbish sometimes. It just saps your energy.”
She added: “I had never heard of AL amyloidosis. A friend of mine was the poster girl for myeloma in Edinburgh and our kids were at school together so I knew of it but not about it.”
Jackie Macdonald said we need GPs to keep asking questions and pushing for solutions around this condition given its so notoriously difficult to diagnose. Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of Myeloma UK, and coincides with Blood Cancer Awareness Month, with an average of 16 people every day in the UK diagnosed with the condition.
When the Edinburgh-based charity was founded in 1997 there were no treatments for the condition and those diagnosed had a life expectancy of 12-24 months. There are currently 12 treatments available for the disease and the life expectancy of myeloma patients in the UK has quadrupled over the past 25 years.
However, Myeloma UK relies heavily on charitable donations to continue fighting to find a cure for the disease and help those who are diagnosed live as long as possible. To find out more please visit their website .
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