{"id":813450,"date":"2026-10-25T13:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T13:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/813450\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T13:26:14","slug":"i-always-knew-something-was-wrong-doctors-told-me-it-was-just-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/813450\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I always knew something was wrong – doctors told me it was just anxiety’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young woman living with a rare form of incurable cancer says she spent years being told her symptoms were “just anxiety” before finally receiving a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Saskia Clark, 26, said she was “always unwell” as a teenager, struggling with extreme tiredness and bowel issues. She repeatedly visited her GP but was often told her symptoms were due to anxiety or that she would “grow out of it”.<\/p>\n

But two years ago, after a student doctor took a closer look at her symptoms and urgently referred her for a CT scan, Saskia was diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer – a rare cancer that forms inside the thyroid gland.<\/p>\n

Now, she undergoes scans every three months to monitor the disease and check whether her treatment is working. She is sharing her story to support an appeal by the Manchester Evening News and The Christie Charity to build a new scanning centre at The Christie in Manchester.<\/p>\n

DONATE TO THE FUNDRAISER BY THE CHRISTIE CHARITY AND MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Saskia said: “I don’t think I was that shocked when I was given the diagnosis because I just knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n

“I always have known something was wrong, otherwise I wouldn’t go back to the GP 100 times.”<\/p>\n

\"Saskia<\/p>\n

Saskia Clark before her cancer diagnosis(Image: Saskia Clark)<\/p>\n

Medullary thyroid cancer is a rare form of thyroid cancer which behaves differently from more common types. Saskia says she has been told by doctors her cancer had probably been growing for more than a decade before it was diagnosed in August 2024.<\/p>\n

She underwent major surgery to remove her thyroid, a tumour in her chest and more than 200 lymph nodes. However, doctors were unable to remove all the disease, meaning she will need ongoing monitoring and treatment.<\/p>\n

She now takes a targeted medication which has helped suppress the cancer, with her most recent scans showing that small nodules in her lungs had “completely gone” and other areas of disease had decreased.<\/p>\n

Saskia has since undergone around 15 scans at the Christie’s scanning centre. It comes as The Christie Charity has launched a \u00a342.5m appeal to create a new scanning centre for patients like Saskia at the Manchester cancer hospital.<\/p>\n

\"Saskia<\/p>\n

Saskia underwent major surgery to remove a large amount of cancer(Image: Saskia Clark)<\/p>\n

The charity says the centre will increase scanning capacity and provide a better environment for patients, while supporting more precise diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n

Saskia said: “For the rest of my life, I’m going to need diagnostic and surveillance scanning. And that’s not something that is cheap. We are lucky to have the NHS<\/a>, but it isn’t enough.<\/p>\n

“A donation is the difference between an anxious scan and a calm scan, and that makes all the difference.”<\/p>\n

Before her diagnosis, Saskia says she struggled to get through the school week because of exhaustion. She repeatedly visited her GP, trying to understand why she was so tired, but says her symptoms were often put down to anxiety.<\/p>\n

She said: “They always told me I’ll grow out of it, it’s just anxiety, she’s a shy child or it’s stress. It was constantly fobbed off, I suppose, and it was something that I’d grow out of.”<\/p>\n

Her symptoms became increasingly difficult to manage as she got older. She says she struggled with the demands of college and later found it difficult to cope with work, even when she was working from home for part of the week.<\/p>\n

\"Saskia<\/p>\n

Saskia has been left with a large scar(Image: Saskia Clark)<\/p>\n

In 2023, Saskia began experiencing severe chest pain which was so painful she feared she was having a heart attack. She says doctors were unable to find a cause and put it down to anxiety and stress.<\/p>\n

She eventually left her job, partly because she felt the stress was being blamed for her symptoms. But after moving to a new role, her health continued to deteriorate.<\/p>\n

Her bowel problems also became so severe that she sometimes struggled to reach the toilet when she was out in public.<\/p>\n

It was another visit to her GP that finally led to further investigation. This time, she says she saw a student doctor who spent longer asking about her symptoms and followed up on details she had mentioned in passing. The doctor consulted her senior colleague, and the pair agreed she needed an urgent CT scan.<\/p>\n

The scan revealed abnormalities around her windpipe, prompting a referral to the lung department. Following a bronchoscopy, in which doctors used a camera to examine her airways and took biopsies, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.<\/p>\n

She was then referred to The Christie, where specialists told her she had medullary thyroid cancer. Because the disease had progressed, surgery could not remove all the cancer.<\/p>\n

Rather than being able to cure it completely, she was told doctors would need to monitor the disease and intervene if it began to grow.<\/p>\n

\"Saskia<\/p>\n

Saskia with her partner of eight years, Danny(Image: Saskia Clark)<\/p>\n

She said: “When I spoke to a specialist, he backtracked off what I spoke about when I was younger and said it was probably growing then. It’s probably been over a decade of growth because it’s so slow-growing.<\/p>\n

“I got to a point where we were never going to get rid of it. It was more going to be a monitoring situation, and we would be trying to keep it at bay rather than trying to cure it.<\/p>\n

“It’s always been called incurable but treatable. We can treat it, but we can’t cure it completely.”<\/p>\n

Now, the repeated scans remain a significant part of her life, bringing anxiety as she waits to find out whether the cancer is stable.<\/p>\n

Saskia said: “With any appointment, there’s definitely anxiety, but with a scan, you don’t know the results until a while afterwards.<\/p>\n

“You’re building up nerves, and then the nerves don’t get resolved by the end of the appointment because you have to wait until someone looks at it and tells you what the situation is.”<\/p>\n

\"Saskia<\/p>\n

Saskia in hospital after surgery(Image: Saskia Clark)<\/p>\n

She says the existing scanning facilities at The Christie have become increasingly busy, with appointments often taking place early in the morning and late into the evening.<\/p>\n

“If the scanning centre was more optimised, it would alleviate a lot of anxiety,” she said, adding that the existing scanning rooms feel outdated compared with other parts of The Christie, which she says has worked hard to create a less clinical environment for patients.<\/p>\n

Since her diagnosis, Saskia has also been documenting her experiences online, connecting with other people living with cancer, including patients with the same rare disease.<\/p>\n

She says finding people who understand what she is going through has been invaluable, particularly because of how rare her diagnosis is.<\/p>\n

She has also taken to leaving bouquets of flowers on patients’ cars at The Christie car park, hoping to offer a small moment of happiness after difficult appointments.<\/p>\n

\"Saskia<\/p>\n

Saskia often leaves flowers on cars parked at The Christie hospital(Image: Saskia Clark)<\/p>\n

The idea came from thinking about the times she and her partner of eight years, Danny, had sat in silence in their car after receiving difficult news. wanted to “interrupt the pattern” of sadness and anxiety that can follow a hospital appointment.<\/p>\n

Saskia said: “It might just stop that thought process, and instead in the car they’re thinking about the flowers or talking about the flowers.<\/p>\n

“There’s just something else besides thinking about the sadness of that appointment, even if the appointment was positive. I’ve left many appointments that were positive and still been sad.”<\/p>\n

She hopes sharing her experiences will encourage other people to trust their instincts if they feel something is wrong with their health.<\/p>\n

Help The Christie build a revolutionary scanning centre<\/p>\n

The Manchester Evening News is backing a bid to raise \u00a342.5m to build a revolutionary new cancer scanning centre at The Christie.<\/p>\n

We are calling on people across Greater Manchester and beyond to help fund the new centre at the world-renowned hospital TO dramatically increase the number of patients that can be scanned and provide access to some of the most advanced imaging technology available.<\/p>\n

The appeal by the hospital’s own charity comes after demand for scanning soared. Existing facilities were built in 1980 to treat around 20 patients a day – but it now supports more than 60.<\/p>\n

To support the appeal, visit the Manchester Evening News and The Christie Charity’s GoFundMe fundraiser here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young woman living with a rare form of incurable cancer says she spent years being told her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[847,59,102,2205,224,20039,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-813450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-real-life","tag-social-media","tag-the-christie-hospital","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813450","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=813450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}