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'Allergy rash' was sign of something far more serious
Western Mail
|October 20, 2025
WHAT Sue Torkington thought was a harmless reaction to some food at first turned out to be the first sign of a life-changing diagnosis.
As a nurse, Sue, from Monmouthshire, thought she would know if something was wrong - but she didn’t.
Unbeknownst to the 79-year-old when she noticed a rash on her hand while out on her Bristol shopping trip, it was the first indicator she had stage four cancer.
Sue said: “We had just had lunch out and I thought perhaps the rash was because of something I had eaten - you know, perhaps a mild reaction to an ingredient had caused it. I didn’t really think anything of it.
“Then I noticed it was coming and going and appearing in different places but I still couldn’t make any connection that anything could be that wrong other than I had a bit of a cold too.
“I started to question things more after I had a blood test and it showed I was slightly anaemic.
“Being a nurse I was a bit concerned because I knew there was no reason for me to be anaemic.”
Sue's career in nursing has spanned decades and continents, from her early days at Southmead Hospital in Bristol to leading a European nursing programme in the Netherlands and Spain.
This story is from the October 20, 2025 edition of Western Mail.
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