A mum has received the devastating news she may only have a few weeks left to live after a shocking cancer diagnosis this weekend. Joanne Kelly, from Radcliffe in Manchester, was told she has terminal secondary bone cancer on Good Friday.
The 35-year-old nursery worker was looking forward to marrying her partner of 12 years Chris Wright, 33 when she started experiencing a persistent cough at the end of last year.
In December her loved ones noticed how she was getting ill regularly with “lurgy after lurgy”, as well as dealing with pains in her legs.
When the pains got so bad that she couldn’t sit down properly her future brother-in-law took her to hospital.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Louise Blackmore – Chris’ sister – recalled her symptoms. She said: “Within two weeks, Joanne’s gone from walking onto a bus to being not allowed to leave hospital.
“Around December time, she had lurgy after lurgy and pains in her legs and it just got worse and worse.
“She had gotten to the point where she went to work and couldn’t sit down. It was actually my brother who said ‘look, this isn’t right, we need to get you down there [to the hospital]’.”
Things took a turn for the worse when Joanne experienced several bleeds on the brain.
“She had severe chest pains,” Lousie, 43, said. “She went into the hospital and was not expecting to be staying there, but her platelets dropped a ridiculous amount, which was making her develop severe bruises. She ended up having five bleeds on the brain.
“We were told there was a possibility that it was a form of blood cancer. When they thought they were dealing with blood cancer, they started on chemotherapy immediately.
“You could see the medical staff were panicked because they didn’t know what the root cause was and they thought there might have been an infection that was making her so poorly and that if they got that under control she would have a treatment plan and recover.
“The shock that that wasn’t the case was staggering.”
A bone marrow test confirmed she had secondary bone cancer – a cancer that has started in another part of the body and has spread to the bone via the bloodstream or lymph nodes.
Over the Easter weekend Joanne’s wider family and friends were given the heartbreaking news that she may only have two to three weeks left.
Joanne’s 13-year-old daughter Mia was told: “Mummy is so poorly she will not be able to win this fight.”
Just a month prior the family had been celebrating and looking forward to the future together at Chris and Joanne’s engagement party.
Louise said: “They were made for each other.
“She’s really family-oriented. Family is her absolute everything and she gushes over Mia. She’s a wonderful mother.”
Louise has set up a fundraising page to help support her family.
She wrote on the JustGiving page: “Joanne’s primary concern and worry is the emotional and financial devastation her illness and inevitable passing will have upon the family. We have set this fundraiser in the hope of alleviating some of these pressures in these unbearable, cruel, devastating times ahead.
“If you can please donate or offer prayers for Joanne, Chris, Mia and her family for the dark times ahead, we can help to shine a light to bear a small proportion of this burden for them.”
According to Cancer Research UK, common symptoms of bone cancer include:
- Pain
- Swelling
- Problems moving around
- Feeling tired
- A high temperature
- Weakened bones
- Weight loss.
