A WOMAN has told of her experience beating two cancers, and how visiting the doctors early can make all the difference.

Gill Craig found a lump in her breast in April 2015, visiting doctors promptly after already having received treatment for breast cancer in October 2000.

“My consultant was very thorough, and there was obviously a concern about metastatic breast cancer [cancer that spreads from site of origin to another], so he ran a variety of tests including biopsy and bloods,” said Gill.

“There was a strange tumour marker result, which led to a PET scan.”

Doctors found that while the primary cancer was in Gill’s breast, it was also in the tail of her pancreas, leading her to be referred to a specialist.

She was told that she would need surgery for the breast cancer, and would then have further surgery to remove the tail of her pancreas and spleen – which was scheduled for July 2015.

“Before this I had no idea what the spleen did,” said Gill.

“As you can imagine I was quite shell shocked with everything that was happening. I was trying to keep calm, coping with doctor schedules, tests and facing a major challenge.”

Once both surgeries were completed, Gill started chemotherapy.

She said: “Operation recovery was tough and chemotherapy was extremely debilitating. But it had to be done. I was extremely lucky that my diagnosis was early.

“The majority of people don’t survive so getting through the treatment was a must.”

Despite the challenges, Gill said that by Christmas 2015, she was “ready to celebrate”.

Gill still undergoes annual mammograms for breast cancer and both CT scans and blood tests for pancreatic cancer, but says she was “extremely lucky to get such an early diagnosis “ and was “very thankful to my medical team”.

“I just knew that everyone in the news that had the disease died quickly but I had no idea what the symptoms were,” said Gill.

Statistics show that 59 per cent of people in the South East know “almost nothing” about pancreatic cancer.

To find out more, see www.pancreaticcanceraction.org