CANCER wasn't satisfied with just me

After Hannah King-Page received a devastating diagnosis, her husband got some news of his own

- SARAH WHITELEY

It was not the way I imagined I would get married. Bald, bloated and a size 22, I was far from looking or feeling my best. But there was a lot about my wedding that wasn’t as I’d planned, including being diagnosed with incurable cancer just months before.

Andrew and I had matched on a dating app back in January 2015. A gas engineer, he was ambitious, independent and creative, and it was refreshing to meet someone who was so genuinely lovely. Within eight months we’d moved in together and 18 months after that we’d bought our first house. 

I was working as a physiotherapist for the NHS and having loved rowing since uni, I was a member of Warwick Boat Club. I was always attending regattas and loved the team sport. Then, in June 2020, mid-lockdown, I was sitting at my laptop when I realised that I couldn’t quite catch my breath. It only lasted for about 20 seconds, and I thought perhaps it was a spasm in my diaphragm. But then, a couple of weeks later, it happened again. Then again…

That September, it happened every day for a full week, and by now it had progressed to a guttural murmur, or a low groan from the back of my throat, which I couldn’t control. There was no pattern to it, and to be honest, I wasn’t worried enough to make a doctor’s appointment.

Then, in early October, I felt it coming on when I was in the office. I tried to cover my mouth to muffle the noise, but when I couldn’t move my hand properly, I realised that they were seizures, not spasms, I’d been experiencing and a colleague urged me to see a doctor.