A MISDIAGNOSIS DESTROYED MY LIFE

Janice Johnston 54, spent more than a year thinking she had an incurable disease

- ROBIN EVELEIGH

Climbing on to the stage and staring out at the sea of faces, I felt so nervous. It was July 2018 and there were thousands of people standing before me at Margate’s Race for Life. With the sun shining overhead, I took the microphone with shaking hands and began to address the crowd, telling them my story.

‘I was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer in August last year,’ I began. ‘And I don’t know how long I’ve got left to live.’

Pausing to take a deep breath, my eyes landed on my husband Garth, 49, and our daughters Odette, 31, Brogan, 26, Bailey, 23, and Tatum, 21. My family had been a constant source of support since my health battle began.

I’d first gone to the doctor complaining of tiredness, blurred vision and night sweats in 2008. I was diagnosed with secondary polycythaemia – a rare condition that meant my body produced too many red blood cells. Over the years, I learnt to manage my illness with venesection – a procedure in which my blood was drawn, a bit like having a blood test, which helped reduce my red cells.

WORRYING SYMPTOMS

Then, one day in March 2017, when I was working as a care assistant at the St John Ambulance nursing home in Whitstable, I started to feel dizzy. My blood pressure was unusually high so I went to A&E.

I was referred for blood tests, but I assumed it was just something to do with my blood condition and something that could be treated. Only, a month later, the tests revealed something more sinister. ‘I’m afraid you have polycythaemia rubra vera – a rare type of blood cancer,’ a consultant explained over the phone.