A man has revealed how a simple precautionary blood test uncovered a deadly cancer with a shockingly low survival rate – despite him having no symptoms at all.
Pradeep Thatai only asked doctors for the routine test after his wife, Teenu, raised concerns about the risk of prostate cancer at his age.
But just hours after the appointment, the 74 year old received a life-changing phone call from hospital staff with devastating news.
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The retired accountant and former HR and finance director was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) – the most common form of leukaemia.
“When I was first diagnosed I asked the consultant what would have happened if I hadn’t had that blood test,” Pradeep, who lives in Bromley in Kent, told Need To Know.
“She said I could have had a stroke or bleeding or a seizure – maybe instant death.
“She said to me on the third visit ‘you’re radiating positivity, I think you’re going to be OK’.
“And she was right.”
Pradeep visited his GP at 9:30am one day in December 2021 for the blood test before receiving a worrying call from a registrar at King’s College Hospital later that evening.
He said: “She asked if I was feeling ok. I said yes.
“She asked if I had any breathlessness or impaired vision – no.
“Then she said my blood test had a 10 to 15 times higher white blood cell count than the norm.
“She told me I needed to go to my local hospital the next day.
“I said it wasn’t a good day because it was my grandson’s last football game of the season.
“She said no, you are not going there, you are going to the hospital.”
The next morning, Pradeep and Teenu travelled to Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington, where signs for Macmillan Cancer Support and leukaemia immediately caught their attention in the waiting room.
After further blood tests, specialists initially suspected a blood infection.
But during his third hospital visit in February 2022, Pradeep was formally diagnosed with AML.
Around eight people in the UK are diagnosed with AML every day, often after becoming seriously ill with symptoms including bleeding, fatigue, infections and breathlessness.
Doctors say it is rare for AML to be discovered through a routine blood test in someone showing no symptoms – as happened in Pradeep’s case.
He said: “My wife was with me and she is a person who is 100% positive about everything in life, so we just took it as ok this is what it is, we shall deal with it.”
But just as treatment plans were put in place, Pradeep faced another terrifying health scare.
Doctors preparing him for chemotherapy became concerned about a lesion on his ankle – something he had previously been told to monitor by a dermatologist.
He said: “I pointed it out to the haematology consultant and asked if it was linked to the leukaemia.
“She said no but let’s get it biopsied.
“So they fast-tracked me and within four days, I got a call from a dermatology consultant to say it was squamous cell carcinoma and needed to be removed.
“I was sent immediately to St Thomas’ Hospital, where they removed it along with a four-inch margin of skin around it.
“That was very painful and it bled all night afterwards.”
It was not until April 2022 that Pradeep finally began inpatient treatment at Princess Royal University Hospital.
Doctors placed him on FLAG-IDA – an intensive combination of four chemotherapy drugs administered over five days.
Pradeep said he was “very lucky” with treatment, with his white blood cell count dropping to zero by the end of the week.
He said: “I knew all about the side effects of chemotherapy but was only sick once.
“I was also given about 25 pints of blood and the same amount of platelets during the time, and 35 days later was released to go home.”
However, consultants warned him that the treatment was not a cure.
Because the leukaemia was in his bone marrow, doctors explained it would likely return unless he underwent a stem cell transplant.
Pradeep was referred back to King’s College Hospital, where the search for a stem cell donor began.
Although family members – including his daughter and sister – were tested, none were suitable matches, leaving Pradeep fearing he would wait “ages” for a donor.
But just weeks later, doctors delivered incredible news – a perfect match had been found through Anthony Nolan.
After delays caused by a dental infection and tooth extraction, Pradeep underwent the stem cell transplant in July 2022.
He said: “I will forever be grateful to him.
“My ‘angel’ donor donated his stem cells the day before and they were flown overnight from India.
“I thought the actual transplant would be a long-winded process but it was over in 40 minutes and exactly like getting a blood transfusion.
“I’d had the five days of intensive chemotherapy before and again was so lucky as I had no problem at all with side effects.
“My wife and I had three words from the start: positivity, positivity, positivity.
“We believed in the magic of the NHS and the good wishes of friends and family.”
After three weeks in hospital, Pradeep returned home, regained his strength and used home-cooked meals to help recover the 10kg he had lost during treatment.
Weekly consultant appointments gradually became six-monthly check-ups, and he remains 100% in remission.
But just as Pradeep overcame cancer, tragedy struck his family again when his son, Jaideep, developed a rare and aggressive thymic cancer.
Jaideep had been recovering before suddenly falling seriously ill during a trip to Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Pradeep said: “My wife and I got an emergency call and immediately caught a train to Paris with our daughter Neha.
“Two hours after arriving at the hospital, as if he was waiting for us to arrive, Jaideep was gone.
“Jaideep had bravely fought his cancer for six and a half years.
“I felt like someone upstairs got the wrong Thatai.
“Jaideep at 41 had achieved more than many people do in their entire lifetime and he remains my inspiration every day.”
Pradeep now focuses on spending time with Jaideep’s sons Jonah and Samir, his wife Christine, and daughter Neha, who lives nearby with her young daughter Maya.
He and Teenu, who previously ran fashion import businesses in London and Germany, also dedicate time to volunteering and community work, with Pradeep serving as a trustee at local schools.
He added: “I want to share my story to encourage other people from ethnic minorities to go and see their doctors if they have symptoms.
“I am not sure whether it’s a lack of trust or understanding, misguided religious beliefs or whether they fear they will experience racism or whether they are just scared they won’t be looked after.
“I want to tell people it’s the opposite.
“Two of my consultants were Greek, one from India originally, another was Brazilian and the last one Italian.
“None of it mattered, I had the best of everything.
“I want to encourage people to feel confident that they will be listened to, understood and treated well.”
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