Mum went to the doctor five times before incurable cancer spotted

06 April 2024 , 19:41

393     0

Pritpal Kaur, 73, and daughter, Minreet Kaur, 43, are now campaigning to highlight myeloma (Image: Minreet Kaur)

A mum and daughter are campaigning to raise awareness of an incurable cancer - after doctors failed to spot the disease during repeated visits.

Pritpal Kaur, 73, went to see the GP due to pain in her ribs and difficulty taking deep breaths. But it took five months of tests and misdiagnoses to get the bottom of what was wrong. She and her daughter, Minreet Kaur, 43, are now campaigning to highlight myeloma, and change the prejudice over it in their community. Minreet said her mum's illness started last year. "We took my mum to the doctors to get checked, and I think they initially kind of didn't really take it seriously," she said.

She left the GP without a proper diagnosis and went about their lives again hoping Pritpal would get better. Unfortunately, Pritpal did not recover and was in a lot of pain again, so Minreet took her to A&E this time. Minreet said: "We went to A&E and they did all the tests there, and they said that they couldn't find anything, but we were like she's in a lot of pain, she could hardly move."

Pritpal said that she had "no strength in her hands' and was "sleeping all the time". "It was not like me, usually I'm very active and then suddenly, for me to become like that, I could not understand what was wrong with me." In A&E they eventually did an ultrasound and said they found a moderate blockage in her chest, which doctors said was probably angina. The doctors gave Pritpal some medication and then let her return home. The medication, though, gave Pritpal some terrible side effects and she stopped taking it, reports MyLondon.

Minreet (left) and Pritpal (right) spoke about their ordeal to get the correct cancer diagnosis (Minreet Kaur)

Minreet filed a complaint to PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) about her concerns with her mother's treatment. A senior cardiologist from the service got back in touch with Minreet and, after speaking with her about Pritpal, they said that they did not think it was angina and asked if Pritpal could come in for some tests.

Brit 'saw her insides' after being cut open by propeller on luxury diving trip

The tests ruled out heart problems. Doctors agreed to send Pritpal the next day to ambulatory care, which deals with outpatients, and they did more tests on her. "They did all the blood tests and the doctor came back and she said everything's fine but there's one further test that we want to do as the proteins are a bit high. So I asked 'Is there anything to worry about?' And she said no, it's fine, but we just need to do another test."

Five months after her initially going in for her rib pain, having gone back and forth several times to the doctors, being misdiagnosed and prescribed medication that made her severely ill, Pritpal was finally diagnosed with blood cancer. Myeloma is not curable but is treatable. Pritpal said: "I just cried there and then. Yeah. It was a shock. I'm a fit woman. I mean, there was nothing wrong with me apart from this when it happened and I was just like, 'Where has this come from?'

Pritpal said that she had 'no strength in her hands' and was 'sleeping all the time' (Minreet Kaur)

"I even did most of the London Marathon last year, I did 17 miles and then my legs froze up and couldn't do it anymore. This year I was supposed to train again and do the full marathon." Minreet said: "This started in May and was diagnosed in September. She got diagnosed five months down the line when really they should have diagnosed her in May because they said they were doing blood tests. My question is, what blood test were you doing?"

Myeloma UK says that there is 'no single test that can tell you if you have myeloma' and doctors have to use a range of test results to confirm a myeloma diagnosis. Minreet said that having spoken to others in the myeloma community it turns out many people have had a long wait for diagnosis, some people she's spoken to have waited as long as two years.

Minreet and Pritpal now want to spread awareness about Myleoma so that people can get diagnosed quicker, and to inform more people about what it actually is. Pritpal said that in their South Asian community, an illness like this is seen as a taboo to have. Minreet said: "It's just a taboo. It is a taboo that is brushed under the carpet, it is seen as a shameful thing. People are like 'Oh, God. That person's got cancer. Is it contagious?' And my mum, when she told some people in the community, one woman who used to hug her stopped hugging her."

Pritpal's daughter Minreet is aiming to spread awareness about Myeloma (Minreet Kaur)

She continued: "I didn't even know what the hell that [myleoma] was. I had to go and do my research and when I googled it I saw loads of articles that came up and they were just people that were white that were talking about myeloma. So I then thought, my mum is the only person brown person that has myeloma.

"There's no Asian woman of my mum's age talking about myeloma, but they definitely have it, and my mum had it. My dad added there's probably so many more out there, they just don't talk about it and we wanted to we wanted to go against that cultural norm. And we thought we were going to raise awareness because I wouldn't want anyone to go through what we did. I wouldn't want anyone to feel alone, isolated, like I did."

Minreet said that she now uses social media to spread the message about myeloma. She is aiming to start a myeloma support group for the South Asian community so there is physical support too. Minreet and her father are also going to run the London Marathon this year to raise money for Blood Cancer UK and to complete it for Pritpal after getting so close last year.

Tai Kolade