Scots doctor admits she was left in 'complete shock' after lung cancer diagnosis

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Raising awareness of the signs of some cancers will be "crucial" in preventing late diagnosis, a medic has said. Dr Paul Brennan, a consultant neurosurgeon at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said the symptoms of some forms of the disease "can be difficult to spot".He spoke out as a survey for the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce (LSCT), carried out by Sapio Research, found only 1% of people in the UK could correctly identify all the symptoms of liver cancer from a list presented to them.

Meanwhile, Dr Ruthra Coventry, a consultant anaesthetist from Aberdeen, told of her "complete shock" at being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018, despite her medical background.Speaking on Less Survivable Cancers Awareness Day, Dr Coventry said: "I was only 38 years old when I was diagnosed with lung cancer, which came as a complete shock despite being a doctor.

I had been suffering from recurrent chest infections, which I just put down to having a toddler bringing home from nursery."I finally decided to get checked out after having an episode of such excruciating chest pain that I had to go to accident and emergency." She stressed: "I am now at four years post-surgery and clear of any cancer, so would like to emphasise how important it is to get checked early if you have any doubts."Don't go by stereotypes of who you think lung cancer patients are - I was fit and healthy running around after my two-year-old." The LSCT works to raise awareness of six less survivable forms of the disease - lung, liver, brain, oesophageal, pancreatic and stomach cancers - which have an average five-year survival rate of just 16%.Together, they make up nearly half of all common cancer deaths in the UK, the taskforce