Cancer symptoms: Woman’s first signs – and the one that got her to see her doctor

Young Alison, from Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, had moved house, started a new relationship, and saw her sister get married. A blood test, however, revealed an increase in white blood cells – not that anyone followed up on the abnormality. With so much going on in her life, when Alison started to lose weight and felt tired, she didn’t think too much of it. The years went on by, the fatigue remained and she started to bruise more easily. It was three years after that blood test when Alison thought pain on the left side of her body was due to indigestion.