A woman who thought she had a UTI was soon diagnosed with stage four cancer in her bowel, liver, peritoneum and ovaries after doctors found a tumour the “size of a watermelon”, has made a “miraculous” recovery with “no evidence of disease”.
Ellie Wilcock, a 26-year-old content manager who lives in Peterborough with her partner Rory Canning, 27, a senior sales and marketing operations analyst, thought she had a UTI (urinary tract infection) in December 2021 which she thought “nothing of”.
But during an ultrasound doctors discovered a 15cm mass which they initially suspected of being an ovarian cyst.
Ellie was meant to have emergency surgery to remove the cyst, but when doctors “opened her up”, they saw what looked like “chewing gum on a carpet” – a large tumour.
After having a biopsy, Ellie was diagnosed with cancer, in February 2022, and it was “the last thing she expected being so young”, but she was “determined” to fight it.
While waiting for chemotherapy, Ellie vomited regularly and was under eight stone – she was “so skinny” but looked “eight months pregnant” because her stomach “ballooned” and she had to be put on a feeding tube.
After chemotherapy and a “hard to come by” operation, which involved removing her entire reproductive system, she got the all-clear on her cancer.
Now Ellie “counts her lucky stars” every day, and said her experience has taught her “you are never too young to get cancer.”
Ellie told PA Real Life: “My mum and I went into a room with the doctor and he said I have cancer.
“I just went into shock – I kept asking him if he was joking.
“They said it was stage four and that it was in my bowel, and it had spread to my liver, peritoneum and ovaries.
“It was the last thing I expected, being so young”
In the summer of 2021, Ellie “couldn’t have been happier” – she and her boyfriend moved in together and she just started her “dream” job.
But in the new year, when she was 25, things took a turn for the worse. Ellie thought she had a UTI and had “extreme pain” but thought “nothing of it” because she has UTIs a couple of times a year.
After a week, nothing improved, so her doctor tested her urine and blood but no infection was detected, and her inflammatory markers were “extremely high”, so she was referred for an ultrasound.
After getting a second opinion from her friend who is a doctor, and having a “gut feeling something was wrong” she went into hospital for the ultrasound.
She said: “When they did the ultrasound, they immediately saw something but they couldn’t tell me any more other than there was a 15cm mass in my lower abdomen.
“I was put on to the women’s health ward as they thought it may be an ovarian cyst.”
The following morning, Ellie was sedated to have emergency surgery to remove the cyst, but nothing had been taken out when she woke up.
She said: “They did a biopsy instead and they suspected that I had pelvic inflammatory disease because when they opened me up my insides looked like chewing gum on a carpet – they could see a large tumour.”
Around a week later, in February 2022, she got the biopsy results, and it was not good news – she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in her bowel which had spread to her liver, peritoneum and ovaries.
Ellie let herself have that evening to “let all of her emotions out” and she woke up the following day with a determined attitude.
She said: “I knew my life was never going to be the same so I just focused on the positives and the plan.”
The next day, Ellie had surgery to form an ileostomy stoma as the tumour was partially obstructing her large bowel.
She said: “The success of the stoma surgery instilled some hope into my family.
“But after the surgery they said my cancer was still so severe that they can only treat it with chemotherapy, it’s inoperable at the moment.”
While at home waiting to have chemotherapy, Ellie got “really poorly” and was vomiting regularly.
She went back into A&E and was put on a feeding tube as she went from around 11 stone to eight stone in a few months.
She said: “I was so skinny, I was all skin and bone, and they put me in a wheelchair.
“My stomach completely ballooned – I looked like I was eight months pregnant.”
Ellie had some more scans and her tumour had grown to be “bigger than a watermelon”.
She started emergency chemotherapy as soon as possible, and after her first round, she was eating again.
She said: “I was in hospital for five weeks in total and I began to improve slowly – I could eat more and more, and my blood results were improving.
“The chemo actually made me stronger rather than weaker.”
Ellie’s oncologist was determined to operate, so increased her chemotherapy strength.
She said: “Over the course of the next around 10 months I had 15 rounds of chemotherapy and it was very tough but I knew we had a plan so it was worth it.
“Eventually, the tumour got down to about 10cm and my ‘pregnancy bump’ went flat.”
She was then referred to a specialist surgeon, as at the time there was only “a handful” that could perform the Cyto reductive surgery with HIPEC.
On December 13 2022, she had the “hard to come by” 10-hour surgery to remove her primary tumour, ovaries, Fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix and parts of her large bowel, omentum, and peretoneum, and reverse her stoma.
She then had heated chemotherapy washed through her abdomen, and was transferred to intensive care.
In January 2023, she also had a liver ablation which involved having “microwaves blasted” into her liver.
She said: “After that, they couldn’t see any more cancer with the human eye, but I had another eight cycles of tablet chemotherapy just in case.
“I finished that round this week, in August, and have had a clear MRI and CT scans since.
“I now have no evidence of disease – I just can’t believe it, it felt miraculous.”
Ellie will now be monitored for any signs of cancer for the next five years.
Looking back on her experience, Ellie said: “I count my lucky stars every day.
“My family, my boyfriend, my friends, the NHS and Macmillan were just amazing, and I’m so thankful that I followed my gut.
“This all taught me that you’re never too young to have cancer and to appreciate life.
On the advice Ellie would give to others, she said: “I think it’s really important to be an advocate for yourself.
“For me, it really helped reading positive stories of others, rather than focusing on statistics because I think that can only get you so far.
“I’d like to now use my platform to spread positivity.”
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