A man who was diagnosed with a deadly lung cancer says he almost ignored one subtle sign of it.

Malcolm Ledgar initially brushed off his health concerns because he believed his respiratory system was in full working order as he had regular X-rays on it.

However, after noticing one strange and persistent symptom, the former builder decided to raise his concerns with his GP and discovered that he has mesothelioma, which is a type of cancer which develops in the lining that covers the outer surface of some of our organs, which in Malcom’s case, was his lungs.

According to the NHS, the incurable disease which more than 2,700 people are diagnosed with each year in the UK is usually linked to asbestos exposure.

Malcolm, who lives in Nottingham, revealed that he was regularly exposed to the toxic fibres – which can get stuck in the lungs and cause serious damage – during his days in the building game.

Malcolm Ledgar, 64, revealed that he nearly ignored a subtle symptom of the cancer (PA Real Life)

He said he first started working for a Cheshire-based firm as an apprentice joiner at the age of 15 and frequently worked with asbestos as at the time ‘nobody knew how bad’ it was.

The 64-year-old explained: “In the 70s and 80s, you always got the rough jobs in your first year as an apprentice. You were always knocking walls down or doing repairs. In those days, nobody knew about how bad asbestos was, there was no personal protection equipment or anything like that. I remember working with it, but I was definitely not aware of the damage.”

Malcolm left the company behind after around eight years, but he claims it’s the only point in time that he could ‘pinpoint’ being exposed to asbestos.

The father explained that one of his former colleagues later passed away from suspected asbestosis, and following the passing of his ex-work pal, Malcolm began to get regular X-rays on his lungs to confirm they were healthy.

“It always stuck in the back of my mind,” he said, However, the check-ups slipped his mind when he moved from Cheshire to Nottingham in 2009 and changed GPs.

After talking to his wife about the ‘old days’, he eventually underwent another X-ray in March 2023 which came back clear, however, the grandad then noticed a strange symptom in September last year.

“It started with a little ache under my right rib, just an annoying ache,” Malcolm said, explaining he checked in with his GP who fast-tracked him for an X-ray at Nottingham City Hospital.

The former builder was then informed he also needed a CT scan too due to some ‘concerns’ about his lungs.

It was later confirmed that Malcolm has malignant mesothelioma in the lining of his lung, seeing him begin immunotherapy treatment on 7 January.

The dad wants to make the most of every last second he has left (PA Real Life)

“There’s no cure for it and it’s covering my right lung at the moment,” Malcolm said. “I’ve not dug into it too deeply, I’ve not gone into detail just yet and I’ve not really asked what stage it might be.”

He has urged any fellow tradies who worked in the industry in the 70s and 80s not to ignore anything their bodies might be trying to tell them.

“If you feel any aches or you’ve taken in dust particles, ask for a check-up and say you feel something is wrong. If you feel any inkling something is wrong, ask for an X-ray – only you know your own body.” he said. “I could place blame and be angry with the world, but it’s not going to achieve anything. Why not be happy with the world and just enjoy what time I’ve got?”

Malcolm describes himself as a ‘very positive person’ and explained he isn’t letting his diagnosis get in the way of anything, as he said: “It’s not going to affect me personally, I’m booking holidays and making plans.”

He is set to enjoy a mega-family cruise for May this year, with his wife, Nicola, their children and grandchildren, while throwing a party on 1 February to ‘celebrate’ his life with his loved ones.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by Malcolm to raise money for two charities – East Midlands Asbestos Support Team (EMAST) and Mesothelioma UK – who have supported him.

To find out more about his fundraiser, click here.

A man was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo an operation to remove part of his tongue after he missed a warning sign.

Dan Durant was a supervisor at a bar from Staffordshire, UK, and noticed in August of 2023 that he had an ulcer on the right side of his tongue.

Nothing too out of the ordinary, he left it be – until a split second reflex saved his life.

Dan’s accidental bite may have saved his life (SWNS)

Dan got ulcers on his tongue fairly often so didn’t think much of it at first, using cool mint Bonjela gel to treat it, before he stopped noticing the pain.

Even though he lost a lot of weight and had a sore throat often, he wrote all of the symptoms off, explaining: “It was a grey, whitish patch. It was the size of a one pence coin.

“I didn’t think of it after that. Mostly it just felt like it wasn’t there.”

But then he started to notice it in April 2024. In August, Dan bit his tongue when sneezing and caused the lump to become inflamed, which caused the 26-year-old to see a doctor, where he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which is a type of cancer.

The health expert told him that it was aggressive and he needed surgery to get the tumour removed before it did further damage.

Dan had to undergo a gruelling surgery to get rid of the tumours (SWNS)

He admitted that he couldn’t ‘quite believe it could be cancer.’

“Being told it was upsetting. I did have a cry.

“It was so surreal,” he admitted.

Dan was told the cancer was aggressive and they needed to get him into surgery soon to remove the tumour, meaning that 50 percent of his tongue would be cut out so that the two discovered tumours could be taken out.

On 12 September 2024, Dan underwent the 11-and-a-half operation, where they also reconstructed his tongue using skin from his left forearm.

“They also used my the arteries from my forearm and put them into my tongue so there was a blood flow,” Dan explained.

That wasn’t all though, as surgeons dissected his neck to remove a cancerous lymph node to test, as the 26-year-old is currently waiting for results from the biopsy on this, which will confirm if he needs further treatment.

He shared: “The nurse said ‘you were lucky you bit your tongue’.”

If the biopsy results go well, he will only have to go through one round of radiotherapy (SWNS)

After eight days of recovering in hospital, he had to get used to eating and drinking again, as he is on a soft food diet while waiting for the results.

“Learning to swallow properly was quite difficult,” he admitted, adding that he is ‘getting used to chewing’ again, which is bringing on some ‘jaw aches’.

If all goes well, he revealed: “If there is little to no cancer cells left I will just be one round of radiotherapy.”

Dan was set to start a new job prior to his diagnosis, but as he is currently out of work and recovering, the former bar supervisor set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for his living costs over the next few months, vowing to donate any excess to cancer research.

“Everything is normal and then all of a sudden it is not.

“It’s a life-changing thing,” Dan concluded.

You can donate to the GoFundMe here.

A woman diagnosed with stage four cancer has shared the hidden symptoms that were initially dismissed by doctors.

Unfortunately, it feels all too common that we hear about someone’s health being overlooked or ignored and for Zoe Gardner-Lawson, it meant being told she had a urine infection while she actually had bowel cancer.

The 36-year-old was prescribed with five days’ worth of antibiotics by the GP over the phone after suddenly feeling a constant dull pain in her lower back in August 2024.

Zoe Gardner-Lawson was sadly diagnosed with bowel cancer (SWNS)

Before this started, the mum-of-three felt ‘fit and healthy’ but the pain wasn’t budging and she was prescribed two further doses across one month.

“There was just no change – and by my third dose, I’d really deteriorated,” Zoe said. “I was basically bedridden – I felt so unwell, and the back pain had spread to my abdomen, too.”

Still with this pain and no answers, the Berkshire woman was back at the GP in September when they advised her to go straight to A&E.

Doctors there checked her symptoms and after a physical examination, concluded it may be kidney stones. But a CT scan confirmed this wasn’t the case and she was referred for blood tests.

Checked for creatine reactive protein, Zoe explained: “They were rising, until they reached 364n/mol – a normal range for women is 52.9n/mol and 91.9n/mol. A general surgeon came to see me, and he said it looked like I had fluid build-up on my abdomen.”

The mum-of-three’s symptoms were initially dismissed (SWNS)

Zoe ‘threw her toys out the pram’ at this point and demanded a full-body CT.

Following two months of this pain symptom coming on suddenly, it was eventually found she had a lime-sized tumour on her bowel causing a perforation, and had spread to her liver, peritoneum and stomach lymph nodes.

A consultant told her she could’ve been living with the tumour for up to four years before it was removed in an emergency surgery in early October.

A biopsy revealed it was a cancerous blastoma – one of the most aggressive forms of cancer – and Zoe was told she’d need to triple her chemo dosage per round.

She’s now on her fifth round of chemotherapy with it being pretty ‘hardcore’ and says her prognosis isn’t certain just yet.

“The plan is, once I’ve had my sixth round of chemo, they’re hoping I’ll have responded well,” she added. “All being well, I’ll need to be booked in for a second surgery – to remove remaining stomach lymph nodes and two tumours on my liver.”

Zoe had a lime-sized tumour on her bowel causing a perforation, and had spread to her liver, peritoneum and stomach lymph nodes (SWNS)

With her pain symptoms initially dismissed, Zoe wants the minimum age for bowel cancer screenings to drop to ‘at least’ 30.

“If my disease was caught earlier, it would’ve been easier to treat… I think the minimum age for testing needs to reduce,” she said.

Zoe has a GoFundMe to fund her alternative treatment and alleviate financial worries.

The NHS lists the main symptoms of bowel cancer as: changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you; needing to poo more or less often than usual for you; blood in your poo, which may look red or black; bleeding from your bottom; often feeling like you need to poo, even if you’ve just been to the toilet; tummy pain; a lump in your tummy; bloating; losing weight without trying; feeling very tired for no reason.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.

A woman who was diagnosed with bowel cancer now wants you to know the unusual symptoms she experienced.

Ellie Wilcock began noticing that something wasn’t quite right with her body in 2021, and initially waved away her own worries.

Believing it was a urinary tract infection, Wilcock thought that the sharp pains on one side of her abdomen could easily be fixed.

However, it turned out that the young woman was actually experiencing a sneaky symptom of cancer.

According to Bowel Cancer UK, around 44,000 people in the UK each year are diagnosed with the cancer, and almost 17,000 pass away from it.

Ellie Wilcock was diagnosed with bowel cancer when she was 25 (Tiktok/elliewilcock0)

Even though you might think that it only happens to those who are 50 and over, it’s actually becoming more common for younger people to develop bowel cancer, similar to pancreatic or colon cancer.

The then 25-year-old from Peterborough was ultimately diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, meaning that it had spread to other areas of the body.

Now, she wants people to know what to look out for.

In a TikTok video, she warned of the four early warning signs that she experienced before she was diagnosed.

She explained that the pain was the first sign, and it surprised her.

She said: “It [the pain] was in my left hand side.

“It was because the tumour was obstructing my large bowel.

“I thought it was more like urinary pain…doctors thought it was a UTI.”

Then, in another video, she shared how doctors believed she was suffering from an ovarian cyst.

Wilcock also experienced other symptoms that are more in line with other people who have bowel cancer.

She shared that she noticed she was constipated, and then would have diarrhoea.

Her cancer was stage four (Tiktok/elliewilcock0)

She said: “For me, it was a constant change between the two but it just wasn’t normal for me.”

Her third symptom was being extremely tired.

“And fatigue. I would come home from work and just want to lie down and go to bed,” she revealed. “I was really tired, I was really fatigued. Even sat at my desk, I was falling asleep I was so tired.”

The last thing that really stood out to her was blood in her stool.

Wilcock said in her clip: “At the time, I didn’t think I had this, but on reflection, I did and just didn’t notice it.

“This could be a range of colours, it could be bright red or a dark red.

“But anything that isn’t normal for you and you’ve noticed consistent blood in your poo then get it checked out.

“It is nothing to be embarrassed about. The sooner you look at it, the sooner you get it out the way.”

She first visited the doctors about her pain in April 2022, and when her test results for a UTI were negative, blood tests found that there was inflammation somewhere in her body.

After having an ultrasound which didn’t find an ovarian cyst, she had to seek emergency help through A & E when the pain got worse.

That’s when a biopsy was conducted, and revealed her awful diagnosis.

They concluded that it had spread to her liver, ovaries, and the peritoneum, which is the membrane that holds the organs in the abdomen.

Wilcock had to have multiple surgeries to remove her cancer as well as chemotherapy.

In August 2022, it was confirmed that she no longer had cancer.