A mum-of-two whose incurable blood cancer was "dismissed" as back pain is campaigning to ensure others are diagnosed more quickly, after her own condition was missed.
Karen Smith broke her spine in two places and "shrank" five inches before being diagnosed with myeloma. The 55-year-old, who lives in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was finally diagnosed in January 2020, two months after a fall at work left her struggling to walk and having to sleep propped up in a chair.
She says she repeatedly visited her GP at Newcastle's Higherland Surgery in agony but her symptoms were thought to be down to "mechanical back pain" due to her job in a pharmacy, reports Stoke on Trent Live.
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