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14
Apr 2023
Harrogate man given two weeks to live calls for more blood cancer research
A man from a village near Harrogate who was told he had two weeks to live is backing a research project to find new treatments for cancer.
Stephen Young, 73, who lives in Brackenthwaite, experienced unusual symptoms last summer including a constantly bleeding nose, a rash on his face, mouth ulcers and shortness of breath.
His GP initially treated him for rosacea and gave him a nasal cream, but the symptoms worsened.
When Stephen returned to the doctor, he had blood tests and was offered a chest x-ray – which revealed a major infection in his lungs.
After being sent by ambulance to A&E at Harrogate District Hospital, company chairman Stephen was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The blood cancer claims more than 2,600 lives a year in the UK – and Stephen's case was so advanced he was told that, without treatment, he had just two weeks to live.
He said:
Fortunately, the treatment was effective and, nine months on, Stephen is in remission and is hoping for a stem cell transplant later this year to improve his long-term prognosis.
However, the impact on his life continues. He said:
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With World AML Day being marked next Friday, April 21, Leukaemia UK is calling on people to help fund more research into the disease and improve the survival rates. Chief executive Fiona Hazell said:
Funding from Leukaemia UK has already helped Dr Konstantinos Tzelepis at a research team at the University of Cambridge to discover a new drug which targets a key protein involved in AML growth and survival.
The charity has now announced funding for a new project which will look at ways to target another protein in the disease.
Stephen's wife Eugenie said:
As well as helping to fund research, Leukaemia UK is urging people to be aware of the symptoms and visit their GP if they are concerned. Diagnosis can often be delayed, frequently happening in A&E when a patient is severely unwell, because the signs can be confused with other, more common symptoms.
Ms Hazell added:
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