Woman who thought symptoms were grief found out she had leukaemia

A mourning daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia after mistaking her cancer symptoms as grief following the loss of her mum.

Laura McLoughlin, 39, began experiencing pain in her left side, weight loss and bruising six months after the death of her mother in 2019.

The mum-of-two originally put the weight loss down to grieving and thought the bruises were just being caused by her clumsiness.

Doctors also told her the pain in her left side was probably just a kidney infection.

But Laura, from Wolverhampton, was left shocked when she was diagnosed with the life-threatening condition following hospital tests.

She now takes a daily chemotherapy tablet and may be on the treatment for the rest of her life as she continues to battle the disease.

Laura said: "I had no idea I was so dangerously ill.

"The pain in my left side turned out to be from my spleen, which was clogged with abnormal blood cells due to the leukaemia.

"I tried not to Google my symptoms but that was impossible.

"I knew I had so many symptoms of leukaemia, but I tried to convince myself it was something like IBS and all would be OK."

Laura was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia and takes a tablet known as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) which controls the disease.

Many patients have a near-normal to normal life expectancy and some can eventually achieve remission.

The six most common symptoms of leukaemia include: fatigue, bruising and bleeding, fever and night sweats, repeated infections, bone and joint pain, and feeling weak or breathless.

Due to the non-specific nature of these symptoms, they’re often mistaken for something more benign and can lead to late diagnoses.

Laura was told she had chronic myeloid leukaemia on September 4, 2019, which also happens to be World Leukaemia Day.

The Leukaemia Care charity are now trying raise awareness of the symptoms of the disease with their Spot Leukaemia campaign this month.

Laura added: "The Spot Leukaemia campaign is hugely important.

"Maybe if I'd seen more about the symptoms in the media and online, I would have gone to my GP much sooner.

"At diagnosis I had 100 per cent leukaemia cells; by 12 months I had hit every treatment target and had just 0.048 per cent of leukaemia cells left in my blood."

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