A mum-of-two wrongly diagnosed with cancer and given gruelling chemotherapy has been told that she has a non-life threatening skin condition instead.
Leanne Cockayne, 40, was initially told she had leukaemia - and went completely bald after undergoing harsh treatment - but later found out she had a condition known as Sweet's Syndrome.
Following the wrong diagnosis February 2016, Leanne endured two rounds of chemotherapy and was even nearly made to have a bone marrow transplant.
The symptoms first arose after the birth of her first child, Darcy, now five, when Leanne began to suffer with several different health complications including arthritis lesions on her hands and a pulmonary embolism.
This led doctors to believe that the mum, from Tiverton, Devon, had cancer for four months before a doctor from a different hospital discovered the mistake.
Leanne, a research scientist, said: "Around three months after Darcy's birth, my Crohn's Disease, which was previously in remission, began to flare up again quite badly.
"Three weeks later, I began to feel even worse with a fever and extreme exhaustion.
"I had really bad joint pain too to the point where my husband had to help clothe me and assist me going to the loo.
"As well as this, I began developing painful lesions on my hands that I can only describe as crippling.
"The pain was so bad I couldn't even open an door for myself as it was just too painful."
To help with the Crohn's Disease and other symptoms, Leanne was put on 'chemo grade' medication by doctors at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital [RD&E] only to find it wasn't helping her symptoms.
Following this, she had biopsies on the lumps on her hands to try and distinguish the cause.
Leanne said: "There were around six or seven different consultants in the room examining my hands.
"When the biopsy results came in, I was called by the hospital and as soon as they asked if anyone was with me, I knew something wasn't good.
"As well as that, they said they wanted me to go in that day for another biopsy and advised I brought my husband a long with me.
"I just remember my whole body going cold when they wanted me back in so quickly."
At her appointment at the hospital, Leanne and husband Phil, 39, were informed they had found something that could have been an indicator of issues with Leanne's bone marrow.
Following the second biopsy, the results showed the bone marrow was OK but that there were 'abnormal cells' in her skin which suggested she had acute myeloid leukaemia cutis.
She added: "All I could say was, 'are you joking?' - I didn't understand how it could have gone from a Crohn's flare up to leukaemia.
"The consultant said he could see it under the microscope and he was '100 per cent sure' meaning there was no argument to it.
"He said other colleagues and literature on the illness also backed his view.
"The type of leukaemia I had been diagnosed with starts in the skin and then goes to the bone marrow.
"Usually it hits true bone marrow within six to seven months of appearing and if it does the prognosis is terminal.
"My bone marrow was clear but they said the max time to hit the marrow was 12 months so they had to act very quickly - I had a 50/50 chance if I did intensive chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
"It was devastating, especially as my daughter, who was two at the time, probably wouldn’t remember me if I died.”
Following the diagnosis, Leanne was to begin chemotherapy as soon as possible.
After her first round, the lumps on her hands returned, causing her to need another round of stronger, longer chemotherapy as doctors said the first round hadn't worked at all and the 'cancer' was in fact worse.
They also wanted Leanne to undergo a bone marrow transplant, which her brother was tested positive for a match.
Fortunately the wrong diagnosis was discovered in time.
Prior to her chemotherapy, Leanne wanted to freeze her embryos as doctors warned the chemo would make her infertile, but due to her prognosis being 'too poor', she was unable to do so through the NHS so had to do so privately.
If Leanne and Phil hadn't made the decision to this, it is unlikely their second daughter Edith, now a year old, would have been born.
After two rounds of chemotherapy, numerous bone marrow biopsies, two stints in isolation and in intensive care due to kidney failure, Leanne got some very different news from a doctor at Bristol.
She said: "Due to the fact I was going to have my transplant at Bristol hospital - I was going to be transferred there from RD&E hospital.
"During my second round of chemo, I had to go down to Bristol for a pre-op consultation.
"As I was supposed to be having my transplant there, they requested blood samples from me and my original biopsy sample from RD&E hospital.
"From this, the team at Bristol had suspicions it wasn't actually leukaemia but Sweet's Syndrome, so sent off my samples to a specialist in London.
"Two months later the specialist confirmed that it was in fact Sweet's Syndrome and not cancer."
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The team at Bristol had expressed their concerns about Leanne's diagnosis to her, but nothing was confirmed.
She said: "I knew something wasn't quite right, and the consultants at RD&E were beating around the bush.
"When my second round of chemo was done, Phil and I decided we wanted to go for a family weekend away - whilst on the drive there I had a call from the hospital.
"They wanted me in to talk to but I asked how urgent it was and if it could wait until Monday as we were finally getting away.
"I simply asked if I was dying, to which they said no; I then asked if It was leukaemia, to which they again said no.
"I just hung up the phone - I couldn't believe after all I went through, it wasn't even cancer."
Since the incorrect diagnosis of Leanne's cancer there was been an external investigation into why this happened, and has received support from the hospital following the ordeal.
A spokesperson for Royal Devon and Exeter hospital said: "We are deeply sorry to Leanne and her family and for the error that led to her having unnecessary treatment and the very significant impact this has had on their lives.
“We take great care to avoid clinical errors because of the impact these can have on people’s lives and misdiagnoses of this kind are extremely rare.
“Following this case a full investigation was carried out to make sure we learn lessons to minimise the risk of such incidents happening again. We continue to provide care to Leanne and we will be contacting her again to make sure she continues to get as much support as possible.”
