'I thought I had hurt my back, but it was cancer'

Doctors told Terry Harper that he had a slipped disc, when it was in fact myeloma, a blood cancer affecting 33,000 people

- REBECCA WHITTAKER

A bus driver who thought he had simply injured his back lifting a mattress is now battling incurable blood cancer.

Terry Harper, from Chislehurst in southeast London, started complaining of a backache in February 2022 after carrying a vacuum-packed mattress up the stairs.

The 62-year-old was initially told his excruciating back pain was a slipped disc, but tests later revealed he had stage 3 multiple myeloma. “I can’t describe that emotional turmoil that you go through when you think you’ve just got a bad back and are told you've got cancer eating away at your spine,” Mr Harper told The Independent.

Mr Harper, who previously worked manual labour jobs and quit due to his backache, recalled getting a CT scan in March 2022 at the Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington, southeast London. He claimed doctors said he had two slipped discs and that he should get better in six weeks.

However, just over six weeks later, in April 2022, he was unable to get out of bed. By the third day of being bed-bound, his partner Della called 111 and he was blue-lighted back to the hospital, where further tests revealed he had multiple myeloma.