A father-of-two who put the ‘dull ache’ in his lower abdomen down to stress levels was eventually diagnosed with ultra-deadly pancreatic cancer — and has warned others not to dismiss warning signs.
Lee Rawlinson, 51, from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, has been told he has months to live, after doctors spotted the disease that is ‘inoperable’, and has spread to his liver.
The ‘brutal’ diagnosis came as a total shock — not only because he is a fit and healthy marathon runner, but due to his normal blood and urine tests.
Mr Rawlinson first visited his GP in January this year after he began experiencing a ‘dull’ pain in his lower abdomen.
But when tests came back as normal, he put the sensation down to being under an unusual amount of stress and relied on painkillers to get him through the day.
”I was taking painkillers every day, and co-codamol, and it wasn’t touching the sides,’ he said.
Then, in September, the pain became unbearable.
‘If you can imagine a scaffolding pole and someone slowly pushing it through you, right through to your back, it was like that.’
Mr Rawlinson, who previously ran marathons, learned that his grandfather had pancreatic cancer and he carries a ‘dodgy gene’.