Sciatic pain, a slipped disc and even the meat sweats were all given as potential cuases for the pain Leah Kalkan was in – she battled for a diagnosis and was told she had cancer
A woman experiencing severe back pain said paramedics told her she was experiencing meat sweats, but a tumour was growing in her spine.
Leah Kalka, 23, couldn’t relieve the awful pain in her lower back that went down into her legs with painkillers. Her GP suggested it could be her sciatica, she says, but walking and sitting down soon became uncomfortable during a family holiday.
“I spent a lot of time in my hotel room as I was in so much pain,” Leah said of a holiday to Turkey with her father. “I was getting a pulsating pain from my lower back down my right leg and into my foot. I couldn’t sit down, lie down, or walk, and paracetamol and heat patches weren’t touching the pain.”
Further tests back home in the UK, involving multiple scans and examinations including an MRI, were carried out privately but didn’t find the cause, only a suspected herniated disc. Further medication was given to Leah to help manage the pain. An osteopath then told Leah she had a damaged tailbone.
Eventually, while Leah was working as a waitress at a steakhouse, the pain became so bad she had to call an ambulance. She claims paramedics told her she just had “meat sweats”.
“They were being dismissive and didn’t spend much time with me, making sure I was fine and even expected me to go back to work,” she said. A sore, hard lump around the size of a grapefruit appeared in October 2023.
“I had lost lots of weight,” said Leah. “I’d been a healthy weight, but with the pain, I wasn’t able to eat as much. I dropped to the lowest weight I had ever been, and most of my clothes hung off me. I was also so tired I had to stop uni and work because of the pain and the tiredness.”
Leah, a student from West Yorkshire, said: “I carried on going back to the doctors a few times a month. Sometimes, I’d go one day and then go back again the next day, crying to them and begging for scans and pain relief as I knew myself that something was wrong with my body. I knew it wasn’t sciatica.
“I’d also wait long hours at my local A&E to be sent back home with paracetamol, codeine, amitriptyline, naproxen, morphine, and many more medications, but nothing was helping, and I knew I needed a scan.”
An ultrasound did not find the source of her pain. Leah also claims she was refused other scans. Her boyfriend, who grew up in Greece, booked a short trip to take her there to have MRIs and an X-ray, which found abnormalities. Leah was then referred for a biopsy with the NHS.
Leah said: “It was frustrating as we only paid to have them done there because I couldn’t get them in England. By this point, the pain left me screaming in agony and unable to walk or sit upright most times.”
Leah was finally diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in December 2023, a form of cancer. Her diagnosis came around two years after her symptoms began towards the end of 2021.
“I was scared they told me the lump was very serious, and that my cancer was rare and aggressive,” Leah said. “I think I asked my consultant over five times in that same appointment: ‘Will I be cured?’
“She couldn’t give me a definite answer, and her honesty scared me more. Knowing there was a deadly disease inside my body growing at a rapid rate and having been told that I was fine repeatedly was devastating. I had been going to the doctors a few times a month for a couple of years by the time I was diagnosed.”
In her fight against the disease, brave Leah needed 14 cycles of chemotherapy and 33 proton beam therapy sessions. Teenage Cancer Trust supported her through her awful ordeal. Her treatment finally ended in July 2024, and Leah was able to return to her studies, studying modern languages and English with French.
Leah said: “All of the Teenage Cancer Trust nurses were so sweet and kind. I would always look forward to seeing them, and they made me feel comfortable and made me smile as much as they could, and I am so grateful. They put on events, and I started to get involved with people on the unit who are around the same age as me.
“Being treated around other young people gave me the opportunity to meet some of the strongest, kindest and most understanding people in my life. It helped knowing that I wasn’t alone.”
Reflecting on the long and difficult route to her diagnosis, Leah said she would urge people to trust their own bodies. “If I could take myself back in time, I would have kept pushing for a diagnosis,” she said. “My symptoms were quite obvious, and any lump should be alarming.
“I would encourage people to trust their own bodies and keep going back to the doctors to push for an answer. But I also think GPs need to educate themselves on the signs of cancer in young people because mine were so obvious and I still wasn’t being seen.”
She is sharing her story to help raise awareness and funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, which is partnering this week with the Omaze Million Pound House Draw. One person will win a furnished home in the New Forest, along with £500,000 in cash.
The money raised by the charity partnership will help fund Teenage Cancer Trust nurses, who support around 7,000 young people with cancer every year including Leah.