My tummy bug turned out to be inoperable stomach cancer: Mother, 45, reveals how she received heartbreaking diagnosis after doctors initially put her heartburn and bloating down to her age

A mother has revealed how she received a heartbreaking cancer diagnosis after doctors initially put her heartburn and bloating down to her age. 

Donna Taylor, 45, had struggled with exhaustion and a loss of appetite while on her holidays in Turkey and Cornwall last summer.

The mother-of-two had experienced heartburn, reflux and bloating for 18 months prior – but put the symptoms down to her age and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

But after returning from her holidays with her children, she was stuck in bed for three days with a sickness bug.

Donna and her doctor initially thought it was due to stress but when her symptoms persisted she was referred to a cancer pathway.

She had an emergency endoscopy and a CT scan which found a huge mass on her abdomen.

The 45-year-old then had a laparoscopy and several biopsies and was diagnosed with stomach cancer in December 2023. 

She was told the cancer had spread to her peritoneum – a membrane surrounding your abdominal organs – and is now inoperable.

Donna, who worked in children’s services for ten years, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire said: ‘It was heart wrenching. Cancer takes so much from you. It’s tried to take away so much but it’s given me so much.

‘It’s about living with cancer. My time is so precious. There is a richness in my life.’

Donna started getting heartburn and reflux at the beginning of 2022 and said: ‘I was going through two bottles of Gaviscon a week.’

But the doctor initially put it down to her age and were not concerned.

In August last year she went on two family holidays and started to notice a loss of appetite.

She said: ‘I went from having three meals to two to one. I felt really bloated. I stopped wearing a bra for a year – it was really uncomfortable.

‘I felt exhausted beyond anything I’d ever experienced. I started to lose weight. It was dropping off me.’

After coming back from her holiday, Donna was struck down with a bug and said she was ‘in bed for three days’.

She added: ‘I thought ‘this is not ok’.’

Donna continued to feel ‘really poorly’ and a follow up appointment with her GP in November 2023 she was referred and taken for an emergency endoscopy.

A following CT scan confirmed a cancerous mass on her stomach.

Donna said: ‘I didn’t think for a second that I was going to be told I had stomach cancer.’

She then had to wait to see the extent of her cancer and had a laparoscopy and biopsies.

The mother-of-two said: ‘It’s devastating. You are in no mans land. You don’t know what you are facing.

‘I went into a parallel universe. Life before Novemeber – that life had gone.’

In December Donna was told the cancer had spread and it was inoperable.

She had a stent fitted into her stomach in January 2024 to aid her digestion of food and medication before staring chemotherapy at the end of the month.

Donna said: ‘It’s been intense and gruelling. The chemotherapy is working. It’s shrinking the tumour.

‘I won’t have surgery as it’s spread. The chemotherapy is about me living a quality of life with cancer.’

Donna finishes her sixth cycle in June and will then have a break to enjoy the summer with her kids. She will then have regular scans to check the growth of the tumour.

She said: ‘I’ll just be wishing and praying that it remains behaving itself.’

Donna has remained positive by setting up her charity Dee’s Tummy Cancer Charity in collaboration with the Weston Park Cancer Charity and Cavendish Cancer Care.

She has already raised £16.5k through her fundraisers and is excited for her upcoming event ‘All that Glitters Charity Disco’ – in June – which she hopes can become an annual event.

She said: ‘I want it to be a legacy. Whatever happens with me I want this to become a legacy.’