Cheshire dad told it's 'probably piles' - now he's fighting stage four cancer
"It was like nobody was listening"
Mike Turner, Gorton dad with stage four bowel cancer
A Cheshire dad-of-three who was losing a "cup full of blood" when he used the toilet was told he "probably had piles" before being diagnosed with cancer. Earlier this year, Mike Turner was given the devastating news that he was suffering from stage two bowel cancer.
Prior to that, the 37-year-old had been experiencing a range of symptoms that left him exhausted and finding it difficult to use the toilet. His partner of 12 years, Lucy Murphy, says that they've had to "fight" to get the correct diagnosis after months of blood tests and doctors' appointments, where she feels her husband's complaints were repeatedly "dismissed."
Speaking to the M.E.N., Lucy, 37, said: "In the beginning he would really struggle going to the toilet. He stayed on the toilet for a good 30 to 60 minutes for 20 times a day. The kids started to notice because they would knock on the door like, 'dad I need to go'. But what we now know is that the tumour was blocking his bowels. When I first took him to A+E we were so dismissed. After we sat there for hours and hours, he wasn't even given a scan or anything.
"He had a quick internal examination and he was told it was 'probably piles.' I remember stressing about the rectal bleeding because they blamed it on piles. I told them, 'I've got three children, I've had piles'. That's not consistent with piles. This was like a cup full of blood down the toilet. It was like nobody was listening. When that doctor said, it was probably piles, I honestly felt my soul leave my body."
Since then, Mike, who lives in Adlington, Cheshire, has had go through surgery and a round of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the cancer has spread and in October he was told that he has entered stage four. According to Lucy, doctors in the NHS say they can only offer Mike palliative care from now on. However, the family believe that Mike's tumour can still be removed in the form of specialist treatment known as cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy.
Mike Turner, Gorton dad with stage four bowel cancer
The method involves the removal of tumours in the stomach and the use of heated chemotherapy drugs to kill the remaining microscopic cancer cells A Crowdfunding page has been set up by Lucy with the aim of raising enough money to fund a surgery that could turn his fortunes around and allow Mike to continue being the ever-present figure in his daughter's lives.
"We're just looking at going private because it's the time aspect," said Lucy. "We haven't got the time to wait and do it on the NHS. The kids are getting affected as well. I've got a 20-year-old blind daughter who has special needs, but she's not aware of much, but my seven-year-old is really started to suffer.
"She's worrying at school. Our life has literally stopped. There's no planning of a future, there's no planning of holidays. Me and Mike have spent the best part of our year spending time together in cancer wards."