Cancer Catastrophe Deborah's Delayed Diagnosis

Her medical mystery took years to solve

- Julie Jacobson

Single mum Deborah Winefield knows she’s living on borrowed time. In November 2017, almost a year after first visiting her GP complaining of abnormal bleeding and back pain, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and told she had less than 12 months to live. The 46-year-old was devastated. And she was angry.

Deborah had been to see her doctor numerous times in the months before a specialist finally referred her for a biopsy that would reveal she had late-stage endometrial stromal sarcoma – a very rare form of uterine cancer that had metastasised to her lungs.

Struggling to keep up with mortgage repayments and wanting to help her son Kaleb, 20, with university fees, South Islander Deborah had been working two jobs – a full-time admin role and night shifts at a local retail store. “

I was experiencing heavy bleeding between periods and I had back pain. But I was doing a lot of physical lifting at my second job, so I initially put the symptoms down to tiredness and the extra work I was doing at night.”

The bleeding continued. In November 2016, Deborah made an appointment to see her GP and was prescribed progestogen, a hormone that stops ovulation. The option of a hysterectomy was raised but put “on the back-burner”, Deborah tells.

For several months, the bleeding was manageable, but in March 2017, with the cost of doctor’s visits, prescriptions and sanitary products adding up, an exhausted and worried Deborah made yet another appointment. She was referred to her local district health board to have an IUD fitted.