A nurse who discovered she had cancer was diagnosed after her husband joked she “looked like a minion”. Becki Buggs, 43, only learned she had pancreatic cancer when her husband made the comment after her skin had turned yellow when she got out of the shower.
Becki had surgery to remove a tumour in the same operation she prepares patients for in her role as an NHS theatre nurse. The mum-of-two said she was “completely devastated” when she was diagnosed as people normally to go to her for reassurance before their own operations.
Becki, from Colchester, Essex, said: “Everything was adding up to the fact that it was not going to be a good diagnosis. It didn’t make it any easier.
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“In fact, it made it harder for me to tell people because I’m the person that they normally look to, to reassure them that everything’s going to be okay. I couldn’t do that this time because I was completely devastated myself.”
Becki now fears NHS staff shortages could lead to cancer operations being cancelled over the winter and is calling for urgent action from the government. Pancreatic Cancer is the fastest-killing cancer, as more than half of people die within three months of their diagnosis.
Almost 60 percent of people who have the disease are diagnosed in accident and emergency, which means for most people, it is tragically too late for them to receive treatment. Becki said: “I’m worried for other pancreatic cancer patients.
“It scares me that there are people out there who will think, ‘Oh, I just feel a bit off and I don’t really feel well but it’s fine, I can’t get a GP appointment, so I’ll just ride it out’. Then they become so ill and jaundiced that they get admitted to A&E and by then it’s too late.
The NHS is suffering with “huge staff shortages,” Becki said, with staff leaving because they are “burnt out and disllusioned”.
“There is also now the extra pressure of winter coming up and soon it’s going to be that we’re so short of doctors and nurses that we’re not going to be able to staff the hospitals.”
In July, a government report said the NHS is suffering its worst workforce crisis in history, as England is short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives. The report by the Health and Social Care Committee found more than a million new jobs will need to be filled in health and social care by the early part of the next decade.
Becki continued: “ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds are going to be a crisis again this winter, and you need an ICU bed after pancreatic cancer surgery.”
Becki warned surgeries will be cancelled if there is a lack of beds, which would give a tumour more time to grow. “It's utterly horrible,” she added.
Becki is now backing Pancreatic Cancer UK's ‘No Time to Wait’ campaign, which is calling for the UK government to make a commitment with the charity. It wants the government to promise those with the disease to be diagnosed within 21 days of their referral and offered fast access to treatment.
Pancreatic Cancer UK also want all pancreatic cancer patients to be immediately given access to support from a specialist nurse. Diana Jupp, CEO of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said a delay in patients receiving a diagnosis could cost lives.
She said: “The message from health professionals is frighteningly clear: the pandemic, staff shortages and underfunding have all pushed the NHS to breaking point. Pancreatic cancer is the quickest killing cancer, and any delays to diagnosis and treatment could cost people their chance of survival.
“Governments across the UK must bring forward and implement funded cancer plans to deliver faster diagnosis and treatment that will save lives, not just this winter but well into the future. We cannot afford to continue lurching from one worsening crisis to another.
“People with pancreatic cancer, their loved ones, and hardworking NHS staff all deserve better.”
Last month, Dr Jiri Kubes of Proton Therapy UK revealed the common signs of pancreatic cancer that, if noticed, should not go unchecked.
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