She Felt Fine—Days Later, a Silent Killer Took Her Life!

A mother of three had stomach pain that doctors thought was food poisoning and gallstones, but it was actually deadly liver cancer. She died just days after finally being diagnosed.

Sian Ashcroft, from Ormskirk near Liverpool, was only 35 when she passed away last year. She had been ignoring warning signs for almost a year.

The first sign appeared in spring 2023 when an NHS assistant noticed she had low iron while she was giving blood.

Low iron is a common problem in liver cancer because the disease affects blood clotting, making people bleed easily and lose iron.

Ms. Ashcroft didn’t think much of it and started taking iron tablets.

A few months later, in August 2023, she had stomach pain, which she thought was food poisoning.

She went to a GP, who sent her for hospital tests.

Doctors believed she had gallstones, which are hard cholesterol deposits in the gallbladder. These can cause nausea, vomiting, and sometimes jaundice, which is a serious reaction.

Her pain got worse, so doctors performed surgery to widen her bile duct, thinking gallstones were stuck there.

But after the surgery, doctors asked her to come back to the hospital. Scans showed a worrying 2cm growth on her liver and several smaller spots.

Even though doctors were concerned and talked about chemotherapy, she did not get an official diagnosis for two more months.

In January 2024, she was told she had cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a very deadly type of liver cancer that starts in the bile ducts inside the liver.

Doctors said the cancer was terminal and that she likely had only two months to live.

‘Sian’s prognosis was a huge shock for everyone,’ her mother, Sue Dowling, told the BBC.

‘She had been feeling worse and worse, seeing her GP often, and staying in the hospital, but the diagnosis came too late to save her.’

According to the NHS, symptoms of this cancer include feeling tired, having a fever, yellowing skin (jaundice), loss of appetite, nausea, and stomach pain.

In the UK, around 3,100 people are diagnosed with this disease every year, according to Cancer Research.

Data shows that only 2% to 9% of patients survive more than five years after diagnosis.

Ms. Ashcroft’s story is similar to many others, says the CCA charity AMMF.

AMMF chief executive Helen Morement said that many people with this cancer do not look like typical liver cancer patients.

Often, people are diagnosed too late, and some doctors are unaware of possible treatments. Because of this, more than half of patients do not receive any cancer-specific treatment, according to the charity.

The Royal College of General Practitioners warned that GPs often do not have enough time with patients to consider rare diseases.

Ms. Morement said that unlike common liver cancer, this type is not linked to cirrhosis, viral hepatitis, alcohol, or lifestyle choices.

To raise awareness on World Cholangiocarcinoma Day, Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building will turn purple to support AMMF’s “Rethink Liver Cancer” campaign and remember Ms. Ashcroft.

The campaign encourages people to learn about symptoms so they can be diagnosed earlier.

Ms. Morement said that anyone with unusual symptoms should get a liver test to check for potential problems.