{"id":634247,"date":"2026-09-24T06:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634247\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T06:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:38:09","slug":"rochester-womans-lump-on-head-was-cancer-eating-hole-in-my-skull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634247\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochester woman&#8217;s lump on head was &#8216;cancer eating hole in my skull&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After numerous tests, including a bone marrow biopsy, Katrina was eventually told she had an incurable form of blood cancer called myeloma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t believe a lump I had joked about could be something so deadly,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Myeloma affects over 35,000 people in the UK. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While it is incurable, it is treatable in the majority of cases. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwyjv3znypyo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC broadcaster Lauren Laverne revealed her diagnosis in July.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, it can be hard to spot, with early signs like back pain, tiredness and recurring infections often being attributed to aging, arthritis or minor illness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;In hindsight, I&#8217;d been fatigued and had experienced terrible rib pain, but they were put down to tiredness from work and a sprain,&#8221; said Katrina, who urged those with similar symptoms to &#8220;get help early and push your medical team as it could save your life&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having had chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant &#8211; as well as titanium mesh inserts to patch the hole in her skull &#8211; she now takes daily medication to try to keep the cancer at bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been really hard adjusting to life with cancer, but I know that I have to make the most of things while I can,&#8221; she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After numerous tests, including a bone marrow biopsy, Katrina was eventually told she had an incurable form of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-634247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}