GP told father-of-three his back pain was sciatica - it was in fact pancreatic cancer...four months later he was dead

GP told father-of-three his back pain was sciatica - it was in fact pancreatic cancer...

four months later he was dead READ MORE: Why ARE more young people are getting killer pancreatic cancer? By EMMA NELSON FOR MAILONLINE Published: 11:31 GMT, 23 December 2024 | Updated: 11:42 GMT, 23 December 2024 e-mail View comments A heartbroken widow has told of the agonising wait for her husband's diagnosis of deadly pancreatic cancer — which came too late to save his life. By the time doctors spotted the disease in June this year it was inoperable, had spread to his liver and triggered life-threatening blood clots on his lung. But Stuart Bradley, 42, from Co Down, Northern Ireland , had been suffering symptoms since the end of 2023, including severe back pain, bowel problems and anxiety.

Ms Bradley, 38, said his local GP struggled to fit him in for an appointment, instead suggesting telephone consultations. During one of these remote appointments in May, a doctor mistook his symptoms for sciatica — a pain condition that's triggered by the compression of the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back to the feet. It wasn't until June 19, nine months after the pain began, that Stuart, a father-of-three, was finally able to get an in-person GP appointment.

It was then that he was diagnosed with blood clots in his legs, and referred to the hospital for further tests. A week later, scans revealed several cancerous masses in his body — including one in his liver, and another in his.