{"id":111587,"date":"2025-09-03T13:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111587\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T13:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:37:12","slug":"i-suffered-a-symptom-that-was-frighteningly-easy-to-dismiss-it-was-the-first-sign-of-cancer-and-doctors-have-given-me-two-years-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111587\/","title":{"rendered":"I suffered a symptom that was frighteningly easy to dismiss – it was the first sign of cancer and doctors have given me two years to live"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother-of-three is calling for anyone with an autoimmune disorder to be screened for cancer<\/a>, after she initially dismissed her incurable disease for a common cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maeve Fanning, 38, from Birmingham<\/a> was clueless about her cancer\u2014despite being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease a year earlier\u2014until she started suffering from indigestion last October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite struggling to eat because of the heaviness she felt in her stomach, Ms Fanning put her her symptoms down to digestive issues and waited to contact her GP until she returned home from a family holiday in Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doctors prescribed antacids to relieve her symptoms and told her she would need to take them for at least a month before she would notice any real improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Ms Fanning’s symptoms did not subside. If anything, they just got worse. Then, the coughing started\u2014which the mother-of-three thought was the so-called hundred day cough that ran rampage last winter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until she began experiencing breathlessness a few days before Christmas<\/a> that she thought it could be something more serious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scans taken on December 20 revealed that she had a significant amount of fluid in her lungs, which doctors were concerned could be a warning sign of blood cancer \u2014and what would be an incurable diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this point, her haematologist mentioned that around half of patients diagnosed with a different type of cancer, called thymoma\u2014a rare type of cancer that starts in the thymus gland in between the lungs\u2014also have an autoimmune disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maeve <\/p>\n

Maeve thought she was suffering from common digestive issues when she was unable to finish her meal whilst on holiday with her family in October half term\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maeve <\/p>\n

Maeve (pictured left) with her children\u00a0Oonagh, 9, Cormac, 5, and Ciaran, 2<\/p>\n

\"Maeve <\/p>\n

Maeve went to the GP who gave her antacids to ease her symptoms\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even still, her doctors’ primary concern was blood cancer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recalling the heartbreaking ordeal, Ms Fanning told the Daily Mail: ‘When they detected fluid in my lungs and said they’d need to start treatment immediately my heart sunk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Two of my children have birthdays in January, so after my biopsy, I ran around trying to get the last bits together\u2014balloons and presents\u2014the call came two days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘On January 4 I was told I likely had blood cancer and that they had a bed for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It was heartbreaking having to explain to my children that I wasn’t going to be there for them. They watched from the window as I left, crying their eyes out.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ten days later, Ms Fanning was discharged from hospital whilst doctors waited on test results to confirm whether it was blood cancer or in fact thymoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘When I asked what my prognosis was, I was told I would just have to be patient and wait for the results. It was horrendous.’<\/p>\n

Devastatingly, the tests confirmed stage four thymoma that had spread to the lining of her lungs, meaning it was incurable\u2014an avoidable prognosis had it been caught earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It was only in December when she started experiencing breathlessness alongside a persistent cough that she thought it could be something more serious\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maeve <\/p>\n

Maeve went to A&E and was immediately referred for scans which revealed fluid in her lungs\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Given <\/p>\n

Given her symptoms, doctors were concerned that she could have blood cancer which had spread to the lining of her lungs – an incurable prognosis\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maeve <\/p>\n

Maeve was admitted for scans and a biopsy that same day\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now Ms Fanning is doing everything she can to see her three children\u2014Oonagh, 9, Cormac, 5, and Ciaran, 2\u2014 grow up, despite being told that palliative chemotherapy, which would give her two years at most, was the only option.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like many other cancers, experts do not know exactly causes thymoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The thymus is a gland in the chest, between the lungs, which produces and releases hormones and helps the body fight off infections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it is thought that people diagnosed with thymoma are more likely to also have an autoimmune disease\u2014which is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking healthy cells in the body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The thymus gland helps keeps the immune system functioning properly, which may explain the link between autoimmune disease and thymoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, despite being diagnosed with oral lichen planus a year earlier\u2014an autoimmune disorder affecting the skin which lines the inside of the mouth\u2014after suffering from painful mouth ulcers, the link with thymoma was never mentioned until it was too late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Fanning started chemotherapy just over a week later on February 14 2025, but after just one round she was told the dose was too high and her body was struggling to cope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this point she weighed just over 6 stone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After spending 10 days in hospital, Maeve was discharged without treatment as doctors waited on the results of further scans which would confirm her diagnosis\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After an agonising wait, Maeve was eventually diagnosed with stage four thymoma – a rare but aggressive type of cancer which forms in the thymus gland between the lungs<\/p>\n

\"Heartbreakingly, <\/p>\n

Heartbreakingly, Maeve was given a very bleak prognosis of two years at most and was told that palliative care was the only option\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Maeve <\/p>\n

Maeve also suffers from a rare autoimmune disease which has been linked with thymoma\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her oncologists reduced the dose and despite responding well to the first three rounds, the treatment had stopped working by round five.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She is now undergoing second line chemotherapy every three weeks to try and keep the cancer under control.<\/p>\n

She has paired her medical treatment with complimentary private treatment in the form of\u00a0 hyperthermia\u2014which works by heating body tissue to help damage and kill cancer cells\u2014hyperbaric oxygen therapy, curcumin infusions and light therapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These treatments\u2014which were recommended to her by her nutritionist who specialises in cancer care\u2014will hopefully alter her diagnosis and help her beat cancer for good.<\/p>\n

Ms Fanning added: ‘These treatments are life changing, and in some cases have seen people’s cancer regress from stage four to earlier stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘For me its too early to say but I want to do absolutely everything I can to ensure I am alive to see by beautiful children grow up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘When I was diagnosed, my youngest was just 18 months old and at the time I wasn’t sure if Christmas 2024 would be my last with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It’s a horrendous situation, every mother’s worst nightmare and this is why I need to do everything I can to ensure I am still with them.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together with her friends and family Ms Fanning has set up a GoFundMe Page<\/a> to help cover the costs of her treatment which sees her travel down to London twice a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have so far raised around \u00a342,000 which she hopes will see her through until Christmas.Altogether her treatments cost around \u00a311,000 a month\u2014a cost she could never cover alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She is now due to start Proton beam therapy at University College London Hospital later this month which uses high energy proton beams to treat very rare types of cancers close to vital organs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother-of-three is calling for anyone with an autoimmune disorder to be screened for cancer, after she initially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2426,97,59,102,56,54,55,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-111587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-wales"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}