A woman who thought she had lost a massive 40kg in the space of nine months due to stress, later was given a devastating diagnosis.
Ann Coates was diagnosed with cancer of the womb and is now facing major struggles to keep her house warm as the chemo and her illness leave her feeling the winter chill.
The 48-year-old from the UK was taken to the hospital in September after experiencing severe pain in her abdomen.
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At this point, she had dropped from 134kg in January to 102kg by that day, which was a result of cancer in her uterus.
She has since dropped to 97 kg after completing two of her six double-dose-intensive chemotherapy cycles and says she is constantly cold, left with little energy, her body “feels like jello” and she is struggling to maintain body heat.
As temperatures drop and the depths of winter approach, Ann says she feeling the cold more than ever and has to wrap herself in several layers of clothing, while also turning up the heating in her home.
However, she says her main fear now is the rising cost of energy which could make for a difficult winter ahead.
Ann is now relying mainly on the income of her kitchen assistant husband, Dave Coates, 50, but says she is also helped out by donations from her GoFundMe page and consistent help from her friends and family.
Ann’s parents, who are originally from and living in South Africa, have since come to live in her home. Her mum, Winnie Francis who is 78, is now helping Dave take care of Ann and her father, 82-year-old Norman, who has dementia.
Speaking about her illness, Ann said: “I’m very confident that I’m gonna beat this and I feel that it was caught early enough. I have the fighting spirit to beat it, it can’t get me down but I will get it down.”
Speaking about when she started to rapidly lose weight, Ann said: “At first everyone complimented me and told me to share my secret.
“I didn’t realise how much I had lost until my clothes were so loose. I lost 40 kilograms from January up to September, not knowing that it was because I was actually really sick.
“I wasn’t trying to lose weight, it just happened. I put it down to stress.”
Ann discovered her diagnosis in September of this year, after a series of bladder infections resulted in her being taken to A&E at Exeter Hospital.
“I kept having bladder infections,” she said.
"Once we got stuck in traffic on the M5 and I couldn’t go to the bathroom for three hours. I was in so much pain,” she said.
“My hubby took me to A&E in Exeter, they ran some tests and immediately said it was cancer, which was a big shock.
“You go into the hospital thinking it’s just a bad infection and they do scans, take blood, and do a biopsy to come back and say it’s stage two or stage three uterus cancer and stage four cancer in the back wall of my uterus.”
She added: “It’s a shock to your system. You think you’re fine and have to tell yourself you’re really not.”
Ann says she has a positive outlook for the chemotherapy but revealed that the tumours present are large enough to have a physical impact on her daily life.
Ann is positive that the chemotherapy will work against the cancer in her body, but the tumours themselves are large enough to have a physical impact on her daily life.
She explained: “The tumour is quite big, so when I stand in the bath, it’s as if it’s too heavy and I have to hold it up.
“With the weight loss you get flabby and I have to hold my stomach. My stomach also gets really swollen so if you’re standing, it’s as if something is pulling you down, I hold it to make it easier.”
Ann said she now feels the cold more intensely as a result of the weight loss and intensive chemotherapy. “When I’m cold, I try and put clothes on and blankets over me, but I need to put the heating on because it’s not enough.
“My body gets so cold. I just have to try and keep warm so I can get better.
"Before I wouldn’t be bothered, but now we have to pay more just to make sure I’m okay.” To ease at least one of her worries, Ann started a GoFundMe fundraiser, hoping to ease the financial pressure of heating her home amid soaring energy costs.
Ann said: “Dave is the only one working and has to do fewer shifts to take me to appointments. But the rent, council tax et cetera still have to be paid.
"I know it’s temporary and I will get back in the saddle to start working again, but right now he is doing all the heavy lifting. The donations I have gotten from friends and family in South Africa and here in the UK take the money stress away a little bit and I don’t have to lie awake about that too.
“It gives me breathing space to concentrate on fighting cancer.” Having done two of her six chemotherapies in the last six weeks, Ann has to do two different treatments in a day to fight the different cancers, one in the morning and the next in the afternoon.
“For a week and a half after the treatment, I am like jello and so exhausted,” she said. “My bones ache from the inside. It’s a pain you can’t describe.
“The chemo is supposed to shrink the tumour, because it is too big to remove at the moment. Once it has shrunk, I will have an operation.
"After the six chemos are done, we will see what course to take after, maybe radiation or another type of chemo if it didn’t work.” Helping Ann after her chemotherapy sessions are her mum Winnie and dad Norman, who came to visit in July but extended their stay after Ann’s diagnosis in September.
“After the chemo, I can’t get up from the seat by myself,” she said. “I’m very lucky, because my mom and dad are visiting from South Africa at the moment and my mum is helping me while also caring for my dad, who has dementia.
“She helps me get up, get into bed and have a shower because I just don’t have the strength.”
Ann’s husband and family are always by her side during her cancer battle. Her twin brothers Norman and Rodney Francis, both 50, have been supporting her too. “I’ve got an amazing support system,” she said.
“My mum, dad, and brother Norman from South Africa came over, as well as my other brother, his twin Rodney, who lives in Oxford.
“When my hair started falling out so badly with the chemo, both my brothers and my husband sat outside with me to shave our hair off together.
"They said they are 100 percent behind me and there to support me. Even my ten-year-old nephew shaved his head in support of his auntie.
"It just feels like I’m not alone in it all and that I’ve got people that stand beside me and support me. It really means the world to me."
It is important for Ann to share the message that people should be aware of the cancer risk. She said: “I would advise everyone over 40 to get a blood test and have themselves checked out.
Even the smallest thing can turn out to be cancer.” To find out more about Ann’s fundraiser, visit www.gofundme.com/f/2m86p9-any-help-appreciated.
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