Esther Shoebridge has never been one to pester her GP for no reason. The 59-year-old former optician from Beverley in East Yorkshire is a regular at the gym and a long-distance walker who prides herself on being fit and independent.
But when she began to feel persistent pain in her neck in the fall of 2020, Esther sought a doctor’s opinion and was assured that it was nothing serious. The advice was to go home, take painkillers and rest until the pain subsided.
When it did not subside, a second visit to the GP a few weeks later yielded the same advice: painkillers and rest.
In fact, it was another five months before Esther discovered the shocking truth: that she had broken a bone in her neck, which was the main cause of her agony.
Esther Shoebridge was told her neck fracture was due to myeloma, an incurable blood cancer that put her at risk of serious injury from any minor slip or fall.
But there was much worse news. Doctors at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham told her the fracture was due to an incurable blood cancer that would almost certainly kill her within five years.
It was called myeloma and it had spread throughout her body, causing millions of holes in her bones, skull and spine, leaving her at serious risk of further damage from the slightest slip or fall.
And it was likely, as he later discovered, that if his neck problems had been taken seriously at an earlier stage, he could have received treatment to prevent bone damage, allowing him more time to enjoy a decent quality of life.
“It was at the height of the Covid-19 restrictions,” says Esther, “so my husband Philip was not allowed to be with me when I received the bombshell news.
‘I was on the verge of tears. I didn’t want to leave Philip, my daughter Grace and my four beautiful grandchildren. There was so much I still wanted to do.
‘The doctor who broke the news to her said, “I guess you’ve never heard of myeloma.”
‘But I told her I was very aware of it: I had just spent a year helping a good friend care for her mother, who had died from it.
One of Esther’s first symptoms was a terrible thirst, which made her drink up to four liters of water each day.
Experts say that if Esther had been diagnosed earlier, the debilitating injuries that occurred as a result of myeloma could have been avoided.
“But I never for a moment thought that was what I had. I felt like I was too young to achieve something like that.”
Myeloma affects around 4,500 people a year in the UK, mainly over 65s. It develops when there is damage to the DNA in bone marrow, the spongy material inside bones where blood cells mature.
This damage causes abnormal cells to grow and release a harmful protein that causes bones to break easily. Symptoms vary, from bone pain and fatigue to kidney damage and nerve pain.
In Esther’s case, one of the first signs was – she later realised – intense thirst. This is because myeloma also attacks the kidneys, preventing them from removing excess calcium from the bloodstream; the body then dramatically increases fluid intake to try to flush out the calcium.
Esther drank up to four liters of water a day.
“It all started with a strange feeling of weakness and dizziness, unable to walk as much as usual or go to the gym as much as I used to,” she explains. “Then I started to feel incredibly thirsty and began to lose weight, from 40 kilos to 37. I also suffered from insomnia and periodic infections.”
It got to the point where Esther had to hold her head up to keep her from falling.
Esther’s first two rounds of chemotherapy failed, but a third attempt has stabilized the cancer.
“I bought a neck brace and thought I had twisted it. Just knowing that I had suffered these symptoms for months while cancer plagued me was absolutely horrible.”
Experts say that if Esther had been diagnosed earlier, the debilitating damage that resulted from myeloma could have been avoided, although the cancer itself could not have been cured. Treatments such as chemotherapy slow the progression of the disease and limit damage to the bones.
“Myeloma weakens bones, so in Esther’s case the damage was greater because of the five-month delay,” said Professor Graham Jackson, a myeloma specialist at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. “If diagnosed early, people can live up to 15 years with myeloma.”
Professor Graham added: “The longer you go without treatment, the more likely you are to suffer fractures and breaks. Yet one in four patients wait ten months from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis – the longest time for any cancer.”
Chemotherapy is not a cure, but it can reduce the number of myeloma cells.
For Esther, the first two rounds of treatment failed, but a third attempt has stabilized the cancer.
While there are promising treatments in development, such as CAR-T therapy, a type of immunotherapy that helps the body’s defense systems attack cancer, they are not yet approved for use in myeloma.
Esther says: “I refuse to let this get the better of me. In August 2022 I walked four miles every day for five days to raise over £2,500 for Myeloma UK – not bad for someone with a broken neck. I feel better now than I have in years and will be flying to America this summer to visit my daughter Grace and grandchildren in Florida.”