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A mother of two was worried she wouldn’t live to see her children grow up after suffering from a persistent sore throat that couldn’t be healed. blood cancer diagnosisSixteen years later, he expresses deep gratitude that he is still alive.
Deb Gascoyne, 50, from Hagley, West Midlands, was 34 when she had a preventive blood test in July 2009 Smoldering myeloma detectedan early form of blood cancer.
Mrs Gascoigne shares the home with husband Nick, 50, and their children Rebecca, 21, and Sam, 19. NurseThat day, she made a last-minute decision to take a blood sample and get an early diagnosis that could have saved her life.
Despite suffering two relapses over the years, Mrs Gascoigne celebrated many important family milestones.
She also devoted herself wholeheartedly Fundraisingaiming to raise £250,000 to support research into new treatments and, ultimately, a cure.
She has so far raised £248,100 for Myeloma UK charities and she is preparing for her final fundraising challenge in May, which is a cycle London arrive Paristo achieve her goal.
Before her diagnosis in 2009, Mrs Gascoigne was an active mother of two who worked in human resources (HR). Her children were two and four at the time.
That all changed when she started experiencing persistent sore throats.
“It felt like there was a golf ball in my throat and it was killing me every month so I went to see my GP,” she said.
“The nurse said, ‘We’re going to do a throat swab and if it comes back negative and you still have a sore throat, we’re going to send someone out to draw blood’.
“Then, just before I left, she said, ‘Actually, you know what? No matter what, we’re sending your blood away right now’.”
Mrs Gascoigne said a split-second decision to draw blood that day led to “an early diagnosis that[she]might not have received otherwise”.
After further tests, including scans and bone marrow biopsies, it was confirmed in July 2009 that Mrs Gascoigne, 34, had smoldering myeloma, an early form of blood cancer.
“Totally shocked” when doctors initially told her she was “too young” to be diagnosed with the disease, she began doing her own research and found life expectancy statistics.
“At the time, there wasn’t a lot of information coming out of the UK and most of it was coming out of the US, but they all said life expectancy was two to five years,” she said.
“So not being able to see our children grow up, not being able to grow old with Nick, was fraught with fear and emotion – all the things we had planned and taken for granted in our heads were suddenly up in the air.”
About a year later, Ms. Gascoyne’s myeloma progressed to active cancer, and she underwent the Myeloma XI trial in 2010, which included chemotherapy.
However, that year Mrs Gascoigne threw herself into fundraising and first completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks with family and friends.
She also connected with other patients through Myeloma UK’s support network, which helped change her perspective.
Mrs Gascoigne said: “Sadly, two women in particular, are no longer with us.”
“But at the time, they really played a big role in helping me realize that I could still have a life and that I could still live many years even with myeloma.”
Mrs Gascoigne had her first stem cell transplant in July 2011, followed by maintenance chemotherapy, which she said kept her in “partial remission” for eight years.
While “in the back of her head” she worried about relapse, Mrs Gascoigne continued to focus on fundraising, organizing events such as the 40 Pubs in 40 Hours Challenge.
According to Myeloma UK, myeloma follows a relapsing-remitting pattern, and successful treatment can put myeloma into remission, but it is likely to come back again.
For her part, Ms Gascoigne said she relapsed in 2019 and underwent a second stem cell transplant in September 2020 before relapsing again in November 2024.
She received new maintenance therapy in December 2024 and is still receiving treatment. Although she’s had a few “hiccups” and hospitalizations along the way, she’s continued to fundraise.
She is currently preparing for her second London to Paris Cycling Challenge in May, where she will be joined by her family, consultants, two clinical research nurses, the wife of a recently deceased patient, and other patients and friends.
During this time, she also hopes to enjoy quality time with her family.
“My husband is going to take some time off so we can make some memories and not wait until it’s too late,” she said.
Mrs Gascoigne said she had had a lot of time to “reflect” since her diagnosis and had often wondered what would have happened if the blood test had not been carried out.
However, since her diagnosis in July, now almost 17, she feels “grateful” because she didn’t think she would have “so much time”.
Mrs Gascoigne told PA: “If I think about the friends I’ve lost along the way, and everything their families have missed, I’m very lucky to have had the slower and less aggressive form of myeloma.” real life.
“I see my children having their big birthdays, I see my son with his girlfriend and my daughter becoming a carer and you would think, these are things I could only dream of when I first got the diagnosis.
“I’m really lucky and blessed to be able to watch them go through this.”
She hopes to continue raising awareness about myeloma and encourage others to “listen to (their) body and be their own advocate.”
“I would say to other people, think as positively as possible because no matter what you read, I like to think that stories like mine show that there is always hope.”
To find out more or to donate, visit Mrs Gascoigne’s latest fundraising page: ride.myeloma.org.uk/deb-gascoyne Or visit the Myeloma UK website: www.myeloma.org.uk.
