A woman who was diagnosed with the same cancer as her late husband, and given as little as six months to live, says she has outlived her ‘expiry date’ to meet her first grandchild.
Ann Lally, a former childminder, was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in June 2024, just three months after her husband Mike, who had been given the same diagnosis, died of a heart attack aged 75.
Ann, 70, who lives near Stockport, said she and her husband both had minimal symptoms but her cancer had spread to her liver and lungs by the time she was diagnosed. According to Cancer Research UK, only about 10 per cent of people with a diagnosis like Ann’s, where the cancer has spread to another part of the body, survive for one year or more after they are diagnosed.
After undergoing six months of fortnightly chemotherapy at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Ann said she was told in February that her tumours had shrunk by 42 per cent, and she is now having regular check-ups without medication or further treatment.