Claire Turner thought that she had a pulled shoulder, but it turned out to be stage four cancer
A mother has revealed how her life has changed after she thought she had a ‘pulled muscle’ in her shoulder, only for it to be cancer.
Claire Turner, 43, suffered a sharp pain in her right shoulder when she passed her daughter a croissant in the car, as the family were on a weekend away in October last year.
Naturally, she got the pain checked out by health professionals, who apparently told her that it was a torn ligament, but Turner started to worry when she noticed swelling on the top of her right shoulder, which was the size of a £2 coin.
The pain grew too, as she couldn’t carry a bag or wear undergarments.
It took serveal trips to the hospital to find out via a biopsy that the mother-of-three had stage four melanoma, which is a form of skin cancer.
The Brit is now warning people about the harmful UV rays that sunbeds emit, which she believes is the cause behind her condition as she used them in her 20s.
According to Cancer Research UK, there are about 17,500 new cases of melanoma each year across the country, with numbers continuing to increase.
More than 2,300 people die from the form of cancer each year – starting from cells that produce melanin, it can grow quickly and enter the bloodstream.
Rates in women have doubled since the 1990s, while it has tripled among men.
Less than half of patients with stage four melanoma survive for more than five years after being diagnosed, but Turner said that it was a ‘blessing’ that she sustained the shoulder ‘injury’.
After passing breakfast to her kids on that fateful day, she revealed what happened when she felt the twinge: “I thought ‘that’s painful’, but then I carried on with the day. It was pretty painful carrying a bag and that night it was quite painful to lean back on it.”
The bump on her shoulder started to get more painful (Kennedy News and Media)
The accountant went to hospital after the trip, with an X-ray revealing nothing serious, as she was told she had likely torn a ligament.
“They gave me painkillers and told me to keep it strapped up and rest it for a couple of weeks and that it should settle down and it did,” she recalled.
But after her shoulder continued to swell, she went to her GP, who informed her that shoulder injuries take ‘a while to heal’.
An MRI scan led to her being referred to a cancer clinic, as she revealed that at this point it was ‘quite a substantial swelling’, as she ‘couldn’t carry a bag or wear a bra’.
“I went on a spiral over Christmas. It was awful, and I was expecting the worst. It’s the lowest I’ve felt in the whole journey,” Turner revealed.
Finally, she was told the diagnosis, leaving her ‘shocked’, as she thought Melanoma starts with a ‘dodgy mole’ or ‘skin lesion’, but she further explained: “The doctor said I had a 50/50 chance of coming out of the other side of this.”
The majority of these cases start with a mole, but in three percent of cases, the mole is never found, and it is only discovered when it starts to spread.
The mum-of-three is grateful that she was diagnosed with the disease (Kennedy News and Media)
Experts think that it shrunk at some point and disappeared, going unnoticed, as doctors advise that if moles get smaller, it is a warning sign to get it checked out.
Turner’s nurse told her that there may have been something on her skin but ‘your body healed it’, though the cancer cells travelled around for months and then ‘created other tumours’.
After undergoing immunotherapy, she was forced to stop in August this year as it resulted in inflammation to her pituitary gland and optic nerve, though she highlighted how thankful she is that she was diagnosed.
“I’m grateful I got it checked out,” she admitted.
“My nurse said to me that 10 years ago with my diagnosis I would be given six to seven months to live. That was quite shocking.”
Further scans revealed tumours in her liver, leg and buttock muscles as well as around her shoulder, but these are either shrinking or are beginning to disappear.
The Mother puts it all down to UV exposure, highlighting: “I did use sun beds and I’ve been burned in the sun striving for a tan, a tan doesn’t last. Fake tan doesn’t last and real tan doesn’t last but which one’s safer?”
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media
