I had to beg doctors to treat me... dying wasn't an option

When Judith Neptial came round from surgery and saw doctors waiting by her hospital bed, she instantly feared the worst. Sadly, her instincts proved correct.

- ADRIAN MONTI

"My consultant said he was terribly sorry, but I had terminal cancer and nothing could be done," she recalls of the life-changing conversation.

"I was told survival wasn't possible, that I had less than a year to live and I should go home and spend time making happy memories with my daughter Ashleigh, who was then 19. I was in total shock as cancer had never been mentioned before the operation."

Judith had undergone surgery after suffering fatigue, dramatic weight loss and pain under her rib cage for three years. Despite worsening symptoms and dropping two stone, going from a size 14 to a 10, she believes doctors did not take her concerns seriously enough.

"Since 2015, I'd been back and forth between my GP and consultant without any answers despite being so ill," says the 53-year-old from Romford, Essex.

She worried her issues might be linked to an abnormality with her bile duct - the tube that carries bile fluid from the liver and gallbladder into the small intestine - which had been operated on when she was four.

By early 2018, she hit breaking point.

"I was so desperate to find out what was wrong, I broke down in tears in front of my consultant," she says.

"I literally begged him to do something."

Her consultant agreed to try reconstructing her bile duct in case it was blocked and causing her issues. But Judith awoke from this procedure in July 2018 to shattering news.

"Nothing prepared me for what I was told," recalls Judith. "The word cancer hadn't once been used."