[Jen] It was when I went to the toilet and my pee was dark yellow, going on orange. So I phoned my GP up, he just got the symptoms and I’d noticed the whites of my eyes were a bit yellow so I gave him the symptoms and everything and he said right, he said I'll be back with you in five minutes. He phoned me back in five minutes and said alright, I want you at Preston Urgent Care within the next half hour. So I was sort of a bit panicked, then it was all go from: there tests - different blood tests. I was there probably all week, going through all the different scans and everything like that: it could be a bit of tissue that was blocking, or it could be a tumour and still I didn't crack on then. I mean, I'd heard of pancreatic, but I didn't know where it was or what it did or anything like that and then I got referred to Blackburn here, and that's when they took an endoscopy to put a stent in and it all went from there. There's a leaflet around there that I just picked up and it had the symptoms and, looking back on them, I had all those symptoms, but never put it down to anything, you know, being the pancreas or anything. I was lucky that, you know, I got in there and they could offer me an alternative to nothing. So, you know, it’s important that you get help or get advised sooner than later.
[Vicki] The Rapid Diagnostic Centre or Rapid Diagnostic Service is something which is an initiative from NHS England and it’s aimed at trying to achieve an earlier diagnosis of cancer. This particular Rapid Diagnostic Service is aimed at trying to get an earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, because the earlier we can make that diagnosis perhaps the patient receiving that diagnosis will have more treatment options and perhaps be eligible for potentially curative surgery.
[Daren] Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease. If we look at the survival over the last 50 to 60 years it has essentially flat lined, whereas other cancers such as prostate, colorectal cancer and breast cancer has improved over time. I mean one of the challenges is actually making a diagnosis really early. So it's really important that when patients have signs and symptoms that they present to their GP early o'clock. That they don't stop and think oh it's just a bit of stomach upset or it's just a bit of indigestion, that they should really seek help. And these symptoms tend to be quite vague and that's one of the challenges the public need to be really aware that if you have vague symptoms: stomach upset; indigestion; a bit of weight loss; back pain; not feeling too right; bloating; it's not settling; you should seek medical attention. Go see your GP, ask them - could this be pancreatic cancer?