'I started to shrink due to undiagnosed cancer'

A man who shrank by three inches after developing a rare cancer has thanked a UK-leading team for extending his life.

Peter Wingrave, 77, from Crewkerne, was diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, after experiencing an unusual back pain.

Unbeknown to the architect, one of his vertebrae was being crushed and there were concerns his back would collapse.

He was rushed in for urgent treatment at Yeovil Hospital, which has now received a national award for its commitment to patients living with myeloma.

More than six years on from his diagnosis, the father-of-three continues to defy the odds thanks to fortnightly blood infusion and medication at home.

"It's brilliant. It's giving people like me a normal life," he said.

Myeloma occurs in the bone marrow, and affects more than 20,000 people in the UK, according to charity Myeloma UK.

The cancer is especially hard to spot as the symptoms are often vague and dismissed as ageing or other minor conditions.

"I had never heard of myeloma and I had to look it up," he said. "It was a bit of a shock really."

Mr Wingrave received radiotherapy to stabilise his back followed by chemotherapy.

Since then, he has had regular infusions, and although his cancer is slowly showing signs of creeping back, his health is stable and he can do most things as normal.

He said staff at Musgrove Park Hospital and Yeovil Hospital have made his treatment relatively simple.

"They are so focused on the patient – they really understand," he said.

"It's a miraculous service. If there is a change, they catch it quickly and you're not left at home worrying whether everything is OK.

"The treatment that they've given me over these six years has kept it a bay, for which I'm extremely grateful."

The cancer teams at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust have now been given a Myeloma UK Clinical Service Excellence Programme (CSEP) Award in recognition of the quality of care they provide to people with myeloma.

Monica Morris, clinical practice programme manager at Myeloma UK, said: "Because staff [at the Somerset trust] know all too well the toll that constant back-and-forth trips to hospital can take, they've partnered with a care service to enable people in more rural areas to receive some treatments at home.

"The chemotherapy services have also been expanded over the last few years to allow patients to get treated more locally, wherever possible."

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