Misdiagnosed student learns she has incurable cancer
A young woman who suffered from severe pains was told it was due to her excessive drinking – when actually she had an incurable form of cancer.
Georgia Ford would occasionally cough up blood, lose her breath easily and struggle to walk or exercise – but was told it was because of how much alcohol she drank.
The 20-year-old was given stomach-lining tablets but over time her condition worsened - this time with weight loss and back pain.
“Originally the GP said the sickness was acid reflux from the amount that I was drinking because I was a student,” Georgia told Kennedy News.
However, when the law student came back from holiday she limited her drinking. But the pains persisted.
She kept going back and forth with her doctor, who told Georgia that the pains she was feeling were all in her head due to anxiety.
“They basically said that this was all in my head and I wasn’t ill at all. I said ‘I fail to believe that I’m having this many severe symptoms and it’s all in my head’.
For almost a year-and-a-half Georgia searched for answers as to why she was feeling the way she was.
It was only in November 2021, after Georgia booked a private appointment, that she was diagnosed with papillary renal cell carcinoma – a rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer.
“I was just so shocked. Just any hope I had of it maybe being something else, it was just the most sinking feeling to be told basically the worst-case scenario and I was just so disappointed in everything,” she said.
“Honestly it’s not been the same since that; that one moment has literally changed my life.”
Doctors explained to the young student that the cancer had started off in her kidneys and spread to her lungs, liver, lymph nodes and bones.
And it was then they told the aspiring lawyer that her condition was incurable, forcing her to accept that this is her life now.
“It’s just like this overwhelming sadness that just fills you at the time,” she explained.
Since the shocking diagnosis, Georgia has begun immunotherapy, which involves taking medication every day and having an intravenous drip every two weeks.
She is always required to take portable oxygen tanks when she goes out, and when it’s time to sleep she requires an oxygen pipe to help her breathe.
Doctors say this treatment will help Georgia’s cancer shrink to the point of having a “normal life” as much as possible.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Georgia with her treatments.
Images: 7News/GoFundMe