A woman experiencing troubling symptoms said doctors initially dismissed them as “meat sweats” – before discovering a tumour the size of a grapefruit growing in her spine.
Leah Kalkan was suffering from lower back pain that extended down her legs, which painkillers didn’t help.
The 23-year-old had been to her GP, who believed it could be sciatica, but when the pain worsened during a family holiday, leaving her unable to walk or even sit down comfortably, she paid to have further tests done privately – but multiple scans and examinations didn’t find the cause.
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While working as a waitress at a steakhouse, the pain became so debilitating that Leah was forced to call an ambulance – and claims paramedics told her she just had “meat sweats”.
But when a tender, hard lump “the size of a grapefruit” appeared, Leah knew something was seriously wrong, and ended up flying to Greece to have an X-ray and MRI scan.
Finally, the terrifying truth was revealed, and two years after her symptoms started, Leah was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a form of cancer.
“I was scared – they told me the lump was very serious, and that my cancer was rare and aggressive,” Leah, a student from West Yorkshire, told Need To Know.
“I think I asked my consultant over five times in that same appointment: ‘Will I be cured?’
“She couldn’t give me a definite answer, and her honesty scared me more.
“Knowing there was a deadly disease inside my body growing at a rapid rate and having been told that I was fine repeatedly was devastating.
“I had been going to the doctors a few times a month for a couple of years by the time I was diagnosed.”
Leah first had the pain towards the end of 2021, and attempted to manage her symptoms with painkillers after her GP advised it was likely sciatic, but it was during a trip to Turkey with her dad in the summer of 2022 that it became debilitating.
She said: “I spent a lot of time in my hotel room as I was in so much pain.
“I was getting a pulsating pain from my lower back down my right leg and into my foot.
“I couldn’t sit down, lie down, or walk, and paracetamol and heat patches weren’t touching the pain.”
Because things had become more serious – and less manageable – they decided to pay to get an MRI privately done, which found a suspected herniated disc.
Again, she was given medication, which helped with the pain.
But when she returned to the UK, it got worse once more.
Leah said, “I took the MRI scan to a private osteopath, and he said that he couldn’t see anything alarming.
“The osteopath said that I had damaged my tailbone and that was causing the pain, and gave me Ibuleve gel, which didn’t help.”
Leah was going to the doctors multiple times a month with complaints of pain in her back, but they were stumped and couldn’t see evidence of anything serious at play.
She said, “The pain was so bad that I had to call an ambulance twice in 2023.
“I was working in a steakhouse and had to call an ambulance to come there one day, so they told me that I had meat sweats, even though I was working there and not eating.
“They were being dismissive and didn’t spend much time with me, making sure I was fine – and even expected me to go back to work.”
Leah felt she was “not being taken seriously” on both occasions.
When the lump formed in October 2023, she became terrified of what the cause might be.
Leah said: “It was a tender, hard lump which turned red at times and was the size of a grapefruit.
“[Around that time], I also found that I had lost lots of weight.
“I’d been a healthy weight, but with the pain, I wasn’t able to eat as much.
“I dropped to the lowest weight I had ever been, and most of my clothes hung off me.
“I was also so tired – I had to stop uni and work because of the pain and the tiredness.
“I carried on going back to the doctors a few times a month.
“Sometimes, I’d go one day and then go back again the next day, crying to them and begging for scans and pain relief as I knew myself that something was wrong with my body.
“I knew it wasn’t sciatica.
“I’d also wait long hours at my local A&E to be sent back home with paracetamol, codeine, amitriptyline, naproxen, morphine, and many more medications, but nothing was helping, and I knew I needed a scan.”
Leah was offered an ultrasound, which failed to find the source of her pain, and claims she was refused other scans.
Her boyfriend, who grew up in Greece, booked a short trip to take her there to have MRIs and an X-ray, which found abnormalities.
But as they had been taken in another country, her GP wasn’t able to look at them.
Leah said: “It was frustrating as we only paid to have them done there because I couldn’t get them in England.
“By this point, the pain left me screaming in agony and unable to walk or sit upright most times.”
Once again, Leah paid for a private consultation with a neurosurgeon to look at the scan results from Greece – and they were immediately concerned that it was a tumour.
She was referred for a biopsy with the NHS, and in December 2023, Leah was diagnosed with cancer.
She was put on a strong regimen of chemotherapy, undergoing 14 cycles, plus 33 proton beam therapy sessions, and was supported by the Teenage Cancer Trust throughout her ordeal.
Luckily, her treatment, which finished in July 2024, was successful, and she has since been able to return to her studies this month, studying modern languages and English with French.
She is sharing her story to help raise awareness – and funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, which is partnering this week with the Omaze Million Pound House Draw.
One person will win a furnished home in the New Forest, along with £500,000 in cash.
The money raised by the charity partnership will help fund Teenage Cancer Trust nurses, who support around 7,000 young people with cancer every year – including Leah.
Leah said, “All of the Teenage Cancer Trust nurses were so sweet and kind.
“I would always look forward to seeing them, and they made me feel comfortable and made me smile as much as they could, and I am so grateful.
“They put on events, and I started to get involved with people on the unit who are around the same age as me.
“Being treated around other young people gave me the opportunity to meet some of the strongest, kindest and most understanding people in my life.
“It helped knowing that I wasn’t alone.”
Reflecting on her experience – and particularly the long route to diagnosis, Leah added: “If I could take myself back in time, I would have kept pushing for a diagnosis.
“My symptoms were quite obvious, and any lump should be alarming.
“I would encourage people to trust their own bodies and keep going back to the doctors to push for an answer.
“But I also think GPs need to educate themselves on the signs of cancer in young people because mine were so obvious and I still wasn’t being seen.”
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