Terminally ill father misdiagnosed as coeliac reveals pancreatic cancer symptoms everyone should watch for
A seemingly healthy father-of-three recently diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer has warned of the everyday symptoms everyone should know about.
Business development manager Mark Ryan, 37, first felt something was wrong when he started to experience abdominal and back pain in January.
He said: “Earlier this year, I started to suffer with severe abdominal and back pain.
“It wasn’t easing so I went to my GP who initially thought I could be coeliac and carried out various tests.
“I cut gluten completely from my diet, but the pain persisted, so I was then referred to a gastroenterologist who did further tests.”
As a result, Mark was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2022.
He said: “It was a shock, just completely out of the blue. I knew something had to be wrong but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be cancer.
“The average age of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is 70. I’m a lot younger, generally fit and healthy, with no previous health issues or a history of cancer in the family, so it really did come as a complete shock.”
The devoted father is in awe of his children, Reece, nine, and Emilie, seven, who have raised tens of thousands for cancer research by running 26 miles during their school holidays.
The determined duo have been running daily since their school broke up in July – raising £50K already, with the rest of the month still to go, for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
Since his diagnosis in March this year Mark, who lives in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, with solicitor wife Lara, 40, and their children, Reece, Emilie, and Rory, three, said: “I’m very proud of them.”
He added: “The kids have been incredible at dealing with the news of my diagnosis.
“Lara and I have been very honest with them and the older two wanted to take on this challenge as their way of helping out.”
Things became even tougher for Mark when he was told how far his cancer had progressed.
He said: “It was even worse to hear that it was stage four cancer.
“Unfortunately, with this type of cancer, the symptoms don’t tend to manifest until it’s quite far advanced, which was the case with me.”
He added: “For me, this cancer is terminal and doctors advised that I would need to commence chemotherapy immediately in order to try and get the situation under control.”
Starting treatment in March, Mark is now on his 10th cycle of chemotherapy.
He said: “I’m still in the initial stages of treatment. They will check after my 12th cycle to see how much effect the chemo has had on controlling the cancer. Then we can reassess and decide what the next steps will be.”
My wife and I decided to take a very open and honest approach with the kids when it came to talking about my illness.
