Grandmother said she was cancer free 15 years past the months she was given

A woman has finally been given the all-clear about her cancer, 15 years after she was told she had only three to six months to live.

Darina Eyre, 62, had bowel, liver and lung conditions – and was even a day patient in a hospice.

The grandmother of a Lancashire child was first diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2004 and underwent surgery and chemotherapy to remove it.

However, she was then told that the disease had spread into her bloodstream and might return.

Four years later, the mother of two was diagnosed with liver cancer and told she had only three to six months to live due to the advanced stage of the cancer.

Doctors then found a cancerous lump in Darina’s lungs and she had to have another operation to remove it.

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Her cancer has been monitored ever since, but now, 19 years after her initial diagnosis, she needs to be told she is finally free of the disease.

Darina said, “I can’t even describe the relief when the doctors said, ‘Darina, we’re going to discharge you.’

“After the last operation we were all relieved, but also very skeptical.

“After 19 years I was finally able to call my family and let them know I was fully released.

“You said, Touch Wood, that the cancer will not come back.”

Her first symptoms of colon cancer appeared a year before she was diagnosed, but doctors told her they were due to a poor diet.

Then the tumor burst and the cancer spread to her bloodstream, which is why she had cancer so often.

“As a family, we were so heartbroken and angry when I was first diagnosed because I was going to the doctor every few months,” she recalls.

“They just said I had eaten badly, but that wasn’t the case because I’ve never eaten badly.

“I wasn’t eating like I am now, which is very mindful, but I still ate well.

“Now I always tell people if they have any symptoms of colon cancer, don’t ignore them and go to the doctor as soon as possible because it could be avoided.”

Her lung cancer diagnosis came just months before her daughter, also named Darina, gave birth to their now 14-year-old daughter Olivia Grace.

This made her “determined” to fight the disease.

Darina said: “When my granddaughter was born and I held her in my arms, I swore that I would be there for her until I was an old grandma.

“The relationship I have with her now is absolutely amazing, she calls me her accomplice and we do a lot of things like vacationing together.”

“Every time I look at her, she reminds me that it’s all in our heads and we can choose to keep fighting.”

Darina has also thanked the staff at Pendleside Hospice in Burnley, who she says do an “absolutely fantastic job” of caring for their patients.

She added, “I will forever be grateful for the days I spent there.”

According to the NHS, the most common symptoms of bowel cancer are:

• Changes in your stool, e.g. B. softer stools, diarrhea or constipation that are unusual for you
• You need to poop more or less often than usual
• Blood in your stool that may appear red or black
• bleeding from your butt
• Oftentimes, you feel like throwing up, even if you’ve only just used the toilet
• stomach pain
• gas
• Lose weight without trying
• I feel very tired for no reason.

If you have any of these symptoms for three weeks or more, you should talk to your GP.

Make an urgent appointment or call 111 if your stools are black or dark red or you have bloody diarrhea.