A woman was diagnosed with terminal cancer after assuming her symptoms were due to menopause.
Carol Kernaghan, from Frome in Somerset, initially dismissed the blood stains on her trousers and the pain in her hip, thinking she was “just menopausal”.
But tests conducted in January 2021 revealed that the 63-year-old grandmother actually had stage four uterine cancer.
Doctors feared the disease would kill her, told her she was “inoperable” and urged her to start planning her own funeral.
However, Kernaghan made a full recovery after undergoing immunotherapy and said doctors were “shocked”.
Carol Kernaghan (pictured left at a Race for Life event) initially dismissed the blood stains on her pants and the pain in her hip as “just menopausal.”
In February 2021, he underwent immunotherapy, a treatment that stimulates the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells, in the hopes that it would give him a better quality of life. In the photo sick in the hospital
In October 2020, Kernaghan, a former dementia caregiver, noticed pain in her hip but attributed it to a recent fall she had had.
He also noticed some stains on her pants, which, due to her age and the fact that she was still going through menopause at the time, he assumed was nothing sinister.
Menopause usually appears between the ages of 45 and 55, but can last up to 10 years.
Busy working 12-hour days, Mrs Kernaghan simply “carried on” and said the pain was “not bothersome”.
But in January 2021, Ms Kernaghan suffered spontaneous blood loss and was rushed to A&E for a biopsy.
Doctors discovered she had endometrial cancer, which had caused the bleeding.
Bleeding after menopause, discharge and abdominal pain are symptoms of the disease.
To treat the condition which affects around 10,000 British women each year, she was offered a hysterectomy.
Ms Kernaghan underwent surgery to remove the rest of the tumor and was declared cancer-free in October 2021. When she was told she was cancer-free, she rang the doorbell (pictured) and cried.
Subsequent tests showed that the disease, which started in the lining of the uterus, called the endometrium, had spread internally.
Kernaghan said: “Once they got in, they realized things were a lot worse than they thought.
“They found out it was in my bladder, cervix, intestine, pelvic wall… it was everywhere.”
And he added: “They told me it was a palliative: they couldn’t do anything, it was inoperable.”
“At first I didn’t want to talk about my funeral because I couldn’t accept it, and when I planned it, it was very hard and emotional.”
When Kernaghan, a mother of three, learned of her diagnosis, she took each day as it came and couldn’t “process” it.
“I also didn’t want to know how much time I had left,” he said.
‘But they kept my daughter Jennifer (35) informed and she took me to her house to spend my days.
“That day was the same day she found out she was pregnant with my grandson; I remember thinking I would never live to see him born.”
‘Looking back, it’s amazing to have overcome a terminal diagnosis.
‘My little grandson is now two years old and he is just beautiful. I’m very glad I was able to meet him.’
Seeing each day as a “blessing”, Ms Kernaghan explained that although she is now cancer-free, there is no guarantee the disease will not return.
During treatment, doctors discovered that Kernaghan has a genetic disease called Lynch syndrome, which makes her predisposed to uterine cancer.
In February 2021, he underwent immunotherapy, a treatment that stimulates the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells, in the hopes that it would give him a better quality of life.
Weighing only 40 kg, he was too weak to endure chemotherapy.
But doctors were “surprised” at how much immunotherapy shrank Ms Kernaghan’s tumours.
She said: ‘They couldn’t believe how much it had shrunk the tumor and they continued to shrink it.
“Fortunately for me, the treatment did more than give me a quality of life: it gave me my life back.”
Ms Kernaghan underwent surgery to remove the remainder of the tumor and was declared cancer-free in October 2021.
‘When I found out I was cancer-free, I just cried. “I couldn’t believe it was all over,” she said.
“I just rang the doorbell and cried.”
During treatment, doctors discovered that Kernaghan has a genetic condition called Lynch syndrome, which predisposes her to uterine cancer.
Although he is currently recovering, doctors cannot give him any guarantee that he will not develop cancer again due to his advanced age and condition.
Ms Kernaghan wishes she had known sooner that she had Lynch syndrome as she would have had regular screening and a prophylactic hysterectomy to avoid getting cancer in the first place.
Their children, Jennifer Brown, 35, Samuel Kernaghan, 33, and Chloe Kernaghan, 32, discovered they all have the same genetic condition.
“The good thing is that it means they get an early assessment so that if there is a problem, it’s caught early,” he said.
Both of their daughters have been offered prophylactic hysterectomies and are considering it.
“I think all women of menopausal age should be screened for endometrial cancer because it is very silent,” she added.
