A heartbroken widow has told of the agonising wait for her husband’s diagnosis of deadly pancreatic cancer — which came too late to save his life.
By the time doctors spotted the disease in June this year it was inoperable, had spread to his liver and triggered life-threatening blood clots on his lung.
But Stuart Bradley, 42, from Co Down, Northern Ireland, had been suffering symptoms since the end of 2023, including severe back pain, bowel problems and anxiety.
Ms Bradley, 38, said his local GP struggled to fit him in for an appointment, instead suggesting telephone consultations.
During one of these remote appointments in May, a doctor mistook his symptoms for sciatica — a pain condition that’s triggered by the compression of the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back to the feet.
It wasn’t until June 19, nine months after the pain began, that Stuart, a father-of-three, was finally able to get an in-person GP appointment.
It was then that he was diagnosed with blood clots in his legs, and referred to the hospital for further tests.
A week later, scans revealed several cancerous masses in his body — including one in his liver, and another in his pancreas, which was deemed inoperable.
Stuart Bradely was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after suffering back pain, as well as unstable bowel habits. It took doctors the best part of a year before they spotted something seriously wrong.
By this point, Stuart, a roofer, was so ill his skin was yellow and he was ‘sweating profusely,’ according to Michelle.
Yet there was little doctors could do apart from prescribe strong painkillers to treat his agonising pain.
‘I had no idea what to do,’ Michelle said. ‘It was very frightening for the children too.
‘We had to tell them about daddy’s cancer without even having the full information ourselves.
‘One night, Stuart was in excruciating pain. The pain killers weren’t working.
‘Paige, our middle child, stood at the top of our stairs crying saying “I don’t want daddy to have cancer”.
‘I felt so helpless as a wife and a mother as I could do nothing to ease Stuart’s pain or Paige’s worry.’
Stuart’s condition deteriorated rapidly and, by September, the disease had killed him.
Michelle Bradley, Stuart’s wife, described her late husband as a ‘one-of-a-kind’ and ‘larger-than-life’ person, who adored his three children Kayla, 13, Paige, 9, and Blake, 4.
Michelle told the Belfast Telegraph: ‘Not seeing the GP made the situation incredibly difficult. Stuart was never questioned about further symptoms or family history.’
Speaking of her late husband, Michelle described him as ‘larger-than-life’.
She said: ‘He was one-of-a-kind, full of fun, and hilariously funny.
‘Stuart had a special way with people. He was an amazing hands-on dad too. The children were his pride and joy.’
Now, Michelle is working with charity Northern Ireland Pancreatic Cancer to raise awareness of the warning signs of the lethal condition.
Around 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease every year.
Pancreatic cancer is an umbrella term for various tumours found on the 25cm tadpole shaped organ that helps with both digestion and hormones regulation.
One type, adenocarcinoma, is the most common, accounting for 90 per cent of cases.
Often, the condition has little-to-no symptoms until patients start suddenly losing weight and turn yellow and at which point for the vast majority, it is too late.
It’s the reason why the disease has been dubbed a ‘silent killer’.
However in some cases there are warning signs — including gut problems like swelling and nausea, pain in the abdomen or back and loss of appetite.
The Northern Irish charity got in touch with the Bradley family six weeks after Stuart’s diagnosis, putting her in touch with another woman who had gone through similar trouble.
Michelle said: ‘I had never heard of the charity until this point. Within a couple of days a woman called Susan Cooke contacted me.
‘She had lost her husband Colin to pancreatic cancer. It was the very first time I felt heard and understood.
‘I can’t describe how helpful it was to speak to someone who knew what we were going through.
‘NIPANC deposited £500 in our bank account to allow us to make special memories.
‘We were referred for counselling support which NIPANC co-fund with Cancer Focus NI and a family photoshoot was organised.
‘Stuart went into the hospice three days after the pictures were taken and died two weeks later.’
