Stort Valley and Villages Primary Care Network begins training programme to educate GPs on spotting signs of blood cancer early in patients

A family's story of navigating the emotional, physical and financial challenges of living with blood cancer, by Amy Atkinson

Following Joel's two-year-long battle for a blood cancer diagnosis, we have been fuelled by our determination to prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Unfortunately, this is the case for many blood cancer sufferers; their pathway to diagnosis and getting the help they need simply takes too long.

Blood cancer can often mask itself as other conditions and the lack of awareness of the symptoms and signs of blood cancer can cause GPs to make the wrong referrals. Knowledge is power and awareness is key. I contacted the clinical engagement manager at Blood Cancer UK, Khadijha Sundus, and suggested that a training programme was made to educate GPs on how to spot the signs early on and promote awareness for blood cancer.

I then spoke with Dr Sian Stanley, the clinical director of Stort Valley and Villages Primary Care Network (PCN) who was happy to roll out the training.

She said: "The whole PCN is happy to engage with the training and raise awareness - we can put it as part of our training programme. Like you, we want to do the absolute best we can for people and training and updating our team is very important to us."

During such a time of strain on the NHS it is fantastic that we have such a wonderful primary care network which listens to patients, learns from mistakes and is keen to learn. The training day was carried out on January 11 and all information was well received and said to be helpful.

Khadijha at Blood Cancer UK says: "Over 40,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancer each year in the UK. Delays in getting blood cancer diagnosis can lead to poorer health outcomes.

"While symptoms of blood cancer like sweating, unexplained weight loss and persistent infections can be difficult to recognise, it's important you speak to your doctor if you have any concerns about your health.

"The latest cancer patient experience survey shows that more than one in 10 of people with blood cancer waited at least three months between first thinking something might be wrong with them and seeking medical attention. It also reported that nearly one in three people with blood cancer saw their GP three or more times before being diagnosed.

"It's simple - Blood Cancer UK wants to see people with blood cancer diagnosed sooner to better their chances of surviving."

More information about the signs and symptoms of blood cancer can be found at bloodcancer.org.uk/understanding-blood-cancer.

We are hoping to roll the training programme out on a larger scale to ensure a faster diagnosis can occur for even more people.

Joel is holding onto his remission and, despite a winter full of bugs and catching Covid, he has managed to avoid a hospital admission.

We have a lot of appointments coming up; with his consultant to plan treatment going forward and with a liver specialist as chemotherapy has caused damage to some of Joel's organs.

Currently Joel looks a picture of health, which is fantastic and lovely to see, but it is quite astounding how so much can be going on beneath the surface. It is an important reminder that you can't always see illness and to be kind and gracious to people because you truly don't know what battles everyone is fighting.

We celebrated our daughter Isla's sixth birthday last week and Joel was able to come to her birthday party this year. Last year he was hospitalised and it was hard to put on a happy face for my daughter whilst the celebrations went on without him.

This year it was truly amazing to have Joel with us to celebrate the sixth year of Isla bringing so much joy and craziness to our life. Cancer teaches you what is truly important in life and for us that is friends and family.

I am making a plea to the community to give blood – please make it your new year's resolution! There is a serious shortage of O negative, B negative and A negative donors and the NHS need more of your blood types please! A moment of your day can literally save another person's life.

Joel has been a recipient of many blood transfusions and they were lifesaving. We are always unbelievably grateful to the person who took the time to donate. Please sign up to donate at www.blood.co.uk.

As always, sending strength, love and positivity to all those in the community fighting cancer.