Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month: Margaret's story

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and it’s vital to spread the word, because sadly more than 50 per cent of those diagnosed still die within three months. But Margaret Clark is living proof that it can be successfully treated. 

Margaret first went to see her GP in 2013, complaining of acid reflux. Medication initially dampened down her symptoms but they began to creep back again, this time accompanied by weight loss.

“I wasn’t really eating,” she recalls. “I had no appetite. I was making a meal but after a couple of mouthfuls I was feeling full.

“Shortly after that I started getting a pain in the middle of my back, on the left hand side. It was so bad – it was better lying down, but it was hard to move about.”

An alert GP sent Margaret off for an endoscopy but that showed nothing much more than minor scarring. Margaret was getting up from the examination couch when her back pain kicked in, and she asked: “Can you do anything about this awful backache?”

“That set alarm bells ringing,” said Margaret. A CT scan showed something but it was unclear what until a PET scan at St James’s, Leeds, showed her tumour, attached to a main artery.

That position ruled out surgery, and Margaret’s only option was chemotherapy, possibly followed by radiotherapy.

She started chemotherapy with a new drug in October 2013. It was a punishing regime that lasted until after Christmas, but her reward was the news that the tumour had shrunk.

Six weeks of radiotherapy followed, with Margaret travelling to Leeds and back on our minibus for treatment. “It shrank a lot more,” said Margaret. “Not enough to be operable, but it was contained and that’s where it has been ever since.

“It never even entered my head that I could have had cancer. I was very, very lucky to be diagnosed early.”

Margaret remains well and she has become a dedicated campaigner and fundraiser for cancer charities including ours.

She successfully lobbied for a range of buildings in York to be floodlit in purple during November to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer.

In 2018 she won a York Community Pride award, sharing the stage with our founder Professor Steve Leveson at the ceremony where he was named Person of the Year.

Margaret agreed to talk to us about her experience in the hope that it will spread awareness of pancreatic cancer and its symptoms.

Symptoms of pancreatic cancer

These include tummy pain, back pain, weight loss and indigestion that have lasted four weeks or more.

Having one or more of these symptoms does not mean that you have cancer, but it is important to get checked out.

Do not worry that your GP is too busy – the NHS is here for you and if you have concerns, your doctor needs to know. As Margaret says, early diagnosis is vital.

You can learn more about pancreatic cancer here: https://bit.ly/3lILons