A woman who thought her acid reflux was down to drinking too much alcohol was shocked to discover she actually had incurable cancer.
Georgia Ford said she went to the doctors after developing a "choking" cough last April and sickness soon after, but a GP put it down to the amount of alcohol she was drinking as a university student and prescribed her stomach-lining tablets. But when the 20-year-old's symptoms, which also included weight loss and back pain, continued to worsen over the course of several months she continued to return to the doctors.
After countless appointments, Georgia was told the devastating news she had a kidney cancer called papillary renal cell carcinoma in November. The law student said her life was "turned upside down" when she was later told the cancer had also spread to her lungs, liver, lymph nodes and bones - and that it was incurable.
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She's now urging anyone dissatisfied with a doctor to push for answers - as she'll 'always wonder' if hers was caught sooner, whether her prognosis might be different.
Georgia, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, said: "Originally the GP said the sickness was acid reflux from the amount that I was drinking because I was a student. They were like 'do you drink a lot?' and I was like 'yeah, obviously I do' so they put me on these stomach lining protection tablets.
"You believe what the doctor says and I thought 'I do drink a lot, and alcohol's poison isn't it, maybe it is just bothering my stomach a lot.' But then I came home where I'm not a big drinker and it still carried on, so I was slightly miffed as to why it wasn't just stopping.
"The tablets didn't work and then it got put down to various other things. There was a time that they thought it was maybe an anxiety thing and it was more of a psychological symptom than actually a physical problem.
"When they said anxiety could be a contributing factor I was like 'I don't consider myself to be an anxious person to begin with and also how can this all be psychological?'
Georgia said her cough got progressively worse to the point it stopped her from being able to do things like walking or running as far as usual, and climbing stairs also became a struggle. Her vomiting reached its worst in August which caused her to lose 10 kilos in weight, mostly between September and November.
Georgia said she started coughing up blood so dashed to A&E where they did an x-ray and 'cloudy patches' were detected on her lungs - but she claims she was assured it wasn't cancer or 'anything life-threatening'. She was put on a three-month referral to a respiratory team but during this time she became much more unwell so booked a private appointment.
The 20-year-old was eventually diagnosed with papillary renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer, last November.
Georgia said: "There's very few times in my life where I've been speechless and I was sat there and words just completely evaded me, I didn't know what to say. I was just so shocked.
"Honestly it's not been the same since that, that one moment has literally changed my life. They later said 'look, it started in your kidney and it's in your lungs, liver, lymph nodes and bones'.
"I remember thinking 'ok, it's already spread quite far away from its original site'. That's when they also told me that it was incurable.
"It's just like this overwhelming sadness that just fills you at the time. I've come a long way since and I'm on my way to accepting and just learning to live with it and doing what I can within the constraints of my life now.
"But at the time I'd gone from being a full university student within a few weeks to being in hospital as a cancer patient. It was just unbelievable. It's literally turned my life upside down."
The law student said she's since started immunotherapy, which involves taking medication daily and having an intravenous drip every fortnight. She also takes portable oxygen tanks out with her and uses an oxygen pipe at night to help her breathe comfortably.
The aim of her treatment is to shrink the cancer down as much as possible to the point where she can 'live normally' and she hopes to return to her studies when she's feeling well enough. Georgia set up a GoFundMe to fundraise for two charitable organisations that are supporting her throughout her treatment and has raised over £1,300 so far.
Georgia said: "No matter what a doctor or any healthcare professional says you know your body better than anybody else. If you think that something's wrong and if you don't feel that what they're saying is right, like you deserve a scan or something more, you need to push and push.
"You're better off to have pushed and to know for sure that it's not cancer than to leave it and to find out that it was."
If you would like to donate to Georgia's Gofundme page click here.
