A DAD has died just 12 days after waking up in the middle of the night with tummy pains.
Chris Weston told his GP in December 2023 that the indigestion he had been experiencing for a few years worsened.
He had previously been diagnosed as prediabetic and was told to make some healthy lifestyle changes to stop the condition from progressing.
So when Chris started to lose weight, the 64-year-old and his wife Carol Weston, who lives in Bradford, put it down to his new diet and being more active.
The GP had also put Chris on blood thinners for suspected deep vein thrombosis, as he complained about pain in his calf.
Chris spent Christmas day with his family and building toys for his second grandson, who was due in the new year.
But a few days after the big day, Carol was forced to call an ambulance when Chris woke up in the night with stomach pains.
It was mentioned at the hospital there was the “possibility of cancer”, Carol said.
After he went back home, Chris’ eyesight deteriorated and his coordination got so bad he couldn’t put his socks on.
He was then fast-tracked for a scan and doctors immediately found something on his liver.
The growth was determined as a secondary cancer site and further tests discovered the primary cause was pancreatic cancer.
Unfortunately, the cancer was too far advanced for anything except palliative care.
After 10 days in hospital, Chris was taken to a hospice before passing away two days later, on January 16.
Carol Weston, said: “It was so hard for all of us that it happened so quickly.
“We try to take some comfort in the fact that at least we got to have one last Christmas with him.
“But he wasn’t here to meet his new grandson when he was born”.
Father’s Day this year was especially hard for the family, she explained.
“It has also been difficult to navigate with our three-year-old Grandson as Chis, who he called ‘Gaga’, was his best friend,” Carol said.
“When I would go over to see him after Chris died, he would run to see if his Gaga was coming in behind me, which was heartbreaking.”
The grandma feels Chris should have been given more tests when he was first told about being prediabetic.
“The doctors at the surgery were really shocked at how quickly it all happened, and they are taking learnings from it,” she added.
Carol is working with charity Pancreatic Cancer Action to raise awareness of the disease’s devastating nature.
The cancer attacks the pancreas, a vital organ about the size of your hand that produces enzymes to break down food and insulin to control blood sugar.
Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival of all common cancers, with five-year survival less than 7 per cent, according to Pancreatic Cancer Action
Around 10,500 people are diagnosed with the disease every year in the UK and half of cases are not found until the tumour is at stage four and has already spread.
Often it has no symptoms or they are mistaken for something else.
Pancreatic cancer often doesn't cause symptoms in its early stages, but it can cause symptoms as it grows and affects nearby organs or spreads.
Symptoms can include:
Other symptoms may depend on where the cancer is in the body, such as a buildup of fluid in the abdomen (ascites)
Research suggests that a sudden onset of type 2 diabetes in people age 50 or older may also be an early symptom of pancreatic cancer.
Sources: Pancreatic Cancer Action UK + Cancer Research UK
