Laura Nixon, 59, was told several times that her stomach pains could have been a UTI but the truth was revealed when her symptoms were not getting better with medication
A woman was told she had a UTI after she went to a doctor with stomach pains but was later given five years to live.
Laura Nixon, 59, had been suffering with intense pain in her stomach after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in April 2024. When antibiotics prescribed to her were not working and the pain persisting, she went to an out of hours doctor who told her she likely had a urinary tract infection (UTI) in January. But, 10 days later, Laura was feeling no better, so she went back and was again told it was still a UTI and antibiotics were re-prescribed.
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Laura “assumed” medics had been checking for cancer markers because she had her gallbladder out previously. She eventually took herself to A&E in April, complaining of pain, and says she was told she would have to wait for a CT scan.
Instead, as she was going to take her mum on a cruise, she decided to have some health checks done with her GP. Her GP got on the phone “immediately” and told her she needed a scan of her colon urgently.
By 3.30pm that day, Laura was told she had stage four pancreatic cancer and had five years to live. The 59-year-old is now in Germany preparing to undergo alternative private transarterial chemoembolization treatment, after choosing not to undergo chemotherapy on the NHS.
Laura, from Windsor, Berkshire, said: “I don’t think I have ever processed it. I go to bed at night and think if I wake up in the morning, it’s a bonus. See people every day, catch up with people.
“I can’t allow myself to be sad. There’s no point in being angry with people as you can’t go back, but I worry about people going through the same thing.”
After being diagnosed, Laura believed the five-year estimate wasn’t correct – instead thinking she had just months. She said: “I researched it with the condition and the size of the tumour, and I thought it was more like three months, no way was it going to be five years.
“I got an appointment with the oncologist at the beginning of August, and I was diagnosed on the 11th of July. My first chemo would have been on the 29th of August and I feared maybe I might have lasted eight months.”
Instead, Laura explored other private options and began fundraising to recoup some of the £65k cost. Much of the treatment was funded by her mum who used her life savings.
She said: “I did more research, and I looked into a clinic in Germany, and I’ve paid £60,000 for private treatment which will aim to starve the tumour which should relieve some of the pain. On Wednesday (03/09) in Frankfurt they’re going to take some blood to produce hormones from it and then they block oxygen to my pancreas and suffocate it to stop it getting any bigger.
“Then in Munich I’ve got two treatments on my lungs and the last day they do my liver. They are going to do intensive injections on the tumours as they’ve spread around my body. It’ll be two-and-a-half weeks in Frankfurt and then two weeks in Munich.
“I’m going on my own, I can’t take my mum with me as she needs to look after the cats and my house is on the market. I’ve borrowed the money off my mum to pay for this and that’s her entire life savings gone now. The treatment should give me a 40% to 60% chance of living two years.
“It’s still palliative, but I’m not worried about dying, I’m worried about who I leave behind. My oncologist said they don’t offer this treatment on the NHS because they don’t know if it works.”
While the treatment isn’t guaranteed to work, Laura isn’t spending her time looking back. She said: “It’s been a complete mess. I don’t blame my GP at all – he’s been so good and pressing for answers for a long time. He’s amazing – I feel so sad for him as he’s completely devastated. I just have to accept it and hope for the best.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help fund Laura’s treatment and has raised over £5,000 so far. Standard NHS procedure involves chemotherapy and surgery and whilst transarterial chemoembolization treatment is available privately in the UK it can cost far more than what Laura is paying in Germany.