A DAD was sent home to take painkillers for stomach pains, before he was diagnosed with a deadly disease.
David Brownlees, 44, started to feel unwell three months before he was told he had kidney cancer.
He started to notice he was feeling really tired and had regular stomach pains.
But due to his job as a nightshift manager he thought it was just a usual part of his work.
When the pain in his abdomen became unbearable he went to see his doctor.
The GP thought he had diverticulitis, an infection or inflammation of pouches in your intestines.
He was given antibiotics and pain medication and told he’d feel better in a few weeks.
But three months later and still in pain he was sent to hospital for more tests and an ultrasound, where an anomaly was found.
Doctors told him it had found a mass that was likely to be cancerous and he’d need his kidney removed.
He said: “I was so shocked and terrified. I didn’t really know what was going to happen next.
“So many things were running through my mind, and I didn’t know how I felt – I just tried to cling on to the small hope I had that it might not be cancer.”
The stunned dad was told the cancer (stage 4) had spread to his adrenal gland, which needed to be removed too.
Shocking pictures show David recovering from the operation, which left a huge scar across his chest.
The cancer was then found to have spread to his lungs in a follow-up scan, but five months on from immunotherapy he has no evidence of the disease.
David added: “I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have been able to cope throughout this journey without the help of Kidney Cancer UK.
“The helpline helped me understand what my grading meant and answered so many questions for me.
“I loved the coffee cake and chat zoom calls as it felt like we were all in this journey together.”
KNOW THE SIGNS
It comes after we told how almost half of all kidney cancer cases are caught too late – as people have no idea they have the disease.
All Brits should learn the signs and symptoms of kidney cancer – which include fatigue, pain in the side and bloody urine – Kidney Cancer UK and Kidney Cancer Scotland have urged.
As part of a nationwide survey, 75 per cent of kidney cancer patients said they had at least one symptom.
But nearly 50 per cent also said their cancer was found as part of an investigation for a different issue.
If it’s found early it can often be cured, but this may not be possible if it’s diagnosed after it has spread beyond the kidneys.
Symptoms include:
- a persistent pain in your lower back or side, just below your ribs
- a lump or swelling in your side (although kidney cancer is often too small to feel)
- blood in your pee
- extreme tiredness
- loss of appetite and unintentional weight loss
- high blood pressure
- high temperature
- night sweats
- swollen neck glands
- bone pain
- coughing up blood
- in men – swelling in the testicles
Kidney cancer, also called renal cancer, is one of the most common in the UK.
Generally it affects people in their 60s or 70s, and is quite rare in the under-50s.
