Football fan Kyle Ingram-Baldwin, 40, thought his issues were down to working out but he soon discovered the terrible truth leaving his wife and children devastated
A dad-of-four described as ‘thoughtful and caring’ died months after going to the doctors to get to the bottom of what he thought was gym-inflicted stomach pains and tiredness.
Kyle Ingram-Baldwin thought he had injured himself while working out, but was given the devastating diagnosis of stage four bowel cancer on October 25 last year. It came as a major shock for the family, with the 40-year-old overcoming a number of health issues over the years.
His wife, Becky Ingram-Baldwin, says Kyle, from Ramsgate in Kent, didn’t display any of the symptoms often connected with the deadly disease. He passed away last month and she says it was terrifying how quickly her husband went downhill after being told the terrible news by doctors.
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She told the Liverpool Echo: “He’d been going backwards and forwards with doctors over the years. He just started getting a pain in his stomach and in his shoulder. He thought it could be a workout injury. The doctor said it was IBS but I thought it sounded like gallstones. I told him to go to hospital, because if it was gallstones, they could sort it out there.”
According to the NHS, stomach pains and tiredness can both be symptoms of bowel cancer, but Becky said Kyle was often misdiagnosed with other illnesses. The family faced a long wait before they discovered what was wrong last October. Becky said: “He kept saying, I’ll be home soon. Then the time just kept ticking away.
“Then he turned up and just told us that it was stage four bowel cancer. We said, ‘what?’ It obviously floored us because he was so healthy, he didn’t look ill and he didn’t have any of the symptoms. He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t do drugs, he ate healthily, he worked out, so it was such a shock. When someone is at stage four, you imagine them being a lot more ill.
“He had a few stomach aches and it wasn’t a consistent stomach ache either. Certain foods would make it worse. He was tired, but we have four children and you expect to be tired. Tiredness obviously is one of the signs, but we didn’t think anything of it. It is just absolutely heartbreaking. It’s scary how he went downhill so quickly.”
On June 8, Kyle set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for private treatment, but he tragically died after further illness eight days later. Kyle was a regular visitor to the North West because of his love of Liverpool FC – something he would ‘talk about with anyone and everyone’.
And the club’s fans have been among those supporting the family in recent days, with a sea of tributes online and a string of contributions to the GoFundMe page, with more than £9,000 raised so far. Becky said: “He was the most amazing man I’ve ever met. He was funny. He was really thoughtful and caring. He’d do anything for anyone.
“Since he’s died so many people have reached out to me and said what an impact he’s had on their lives. I knew he was incredible, but it’s another level. It’s really great hearing how incredible other people thought he was because I knew it. He was an amazing dad too. Being a dad was a really important thing to him.”
She added: “It’s such a loss. He was my everything. He was my soulmate. We’ve been together a long time. I don’t think we’ll ever get over this, ever, because it was so quick. He contracted sepsis at the end and died of multi-organ failure, which stemmed from the cancer.”