My GP told me my back pain was nothing for YEARS but now I’m battling a terminal disease
A GRANDAD is battling a terminal disease after his GP told him for years that his back pain was only caused by ageing.
Geoff Duke, 50, claims he was told tests on the NHS “cost money” and he would have to “learn to live” with his agony.
But knowing in his gut something was wrong, he eventually changed doctors and was able to get tests that found the devastating truth behind his symptoms.
Geoff, a dad of four and expecting a second grandchild, told : "I had lived with severe back pain going back years.
“I kept seeing the doctor and telling them there was something definitely wrong here.
“On one occasion I'd started a job in the civil service in Newcastle and took really unwell.
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“My back went off and I felt terrible. I had been back and forwards to this doctor for years - but he was the type of doctor who will sign you off work and that'll be that.”
"I knew there was something seriously wrong with my back and I specifically asked the GP to do a blood test or a scan but I was told I was getting old, that tests cost the NHS money and that I would have to learn to live with it.”
Geoff, from Washington, Sunderland, says he “kept collapsing” and had to stop work.
Eventually he changed doctors and, because he was a new patient, had to do a set of blood tests.
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It was then that doctors spotted something abnormal, after years of Geoff pleading to have a blood test with his previous GP.
He said: “From the blood test, I was in front of a cancer specialist within a week and when they went through the symptoms - severe back pain, breathless for example, I could tick them all off."
Geoff was diagnosed with myeloma cancer, a fatal form of blood cancer which affects 24,000 people every year, and kills 3,000.
The NHS says it may not cause any symptoms in the early stages, but later can cause persistent pain in the back, ribs or hips.
Other signs include tiredness, shortness of breath, blurred vision bruising and unusual bleeding, weak bones and weight loss.
The cancer damages bones and affects the production of healthy blood cells. It is most common in those over 60, men, and black people have twice the risk.
Geoff’s cancer was already advanced and he says had he not changed his GP, he “might not be here today”.
He was told that without treatment, he might only see three years of life. He took part in a clinical trial which will hopefully give him survival of 10 years.
Generally for people with myeloma in England, half will live for five years.
Geoff says he feels myeloma is the "worst kind of cancer", adding: “It’s prolonged, there is no cure.
"When you relapse you go through it all over again. Even when you go into remission, the underlying cancer is still there.
“But it didn’t have to take so long to be diagnosed.”
Geoff found comfort in Facebook groups of other people with the condition, but says they all have the same story.
“People are presenting with the same things – back pain and bone pain – and they’re dismissed.”
Leading charity Myeloma UK echoed Geoff’s thoughts, saying that 49 per cent of patients experience "avoidable, life-altering complications" because their cancer is missed.
Geoff has suffered spinal fractures as a result of the disease, has lost a lot of mobility and spent time in a wheelchair.
Acting Director of Research and Patient Advocacy of Myeloma UK, Shelagh McKinlay, said: "We cannot allow the lives of patients like Geoff to be diminished by avoidable delays in diagnosis.
“The quality of life of people living with myeloma has never been more important, with advances in treatment meaning that patients are now able to live longer than ever before.
"Delayed diagnosis is well known to increase the likelihood that patients will experience two or more serious complications.
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“Yet, there are still no specific diagnosis targets to make sure the disease is caught and treated in time and to tackle unacceptable and truly harmful delays.
“This is doubly unfair since we know outcomes for myeloma are already so poor."