In 2013, when Michelle Leyden was diagnosed with cervical cancer, her doctors advised her to begin radiotherapy as soon as possible. They had high hopes that they could get rid of her cancer completely, before it’d spread too far.
After just one year of treatment, Leyden had, indeed, been able to fight off her cancer. All of her follow-up scans were also incredibly positive; the cancer wasn’t returning.
Earlier this year, when Leyden and her partner, Kevin Rowley, went on vacation to Greece to celebrate two years of her being in remission, she confessed that she was experiencing intense stomach pains.
Rowley brought her to the closest hospital, but by that point, Leyden’s condition had already deteriorated too far.
The doctors there had to put her into a medically induced coma because there was little they could do for her at that point.
Leyden had been suffering from a perforated bowel, a condition that had been caused by her intense cancer treatment, but hadn’t spoken up about her pain until then.
“She is not a moaner and she never once complained during her cancer treatment but she did not seem right that last week,” Rowley recalled. “She only had to last until the next day and then we could take her to the doctors at home, but that opportunity never arose.”
Leyden remained in the coma for almost six weeks before the doctors decided to air-lift her back to her home country — Britain — to be with her own doctors.
Just five days after Leyden returned home, she passed away.
Everyone in her family is stunned that her cancer treatment ultimately caused her death, but they’re all “just glad [they] had those three years with her.”
Leyden’s mother said, “If it wasn't for the work of the Royal Derby Hospital we wouldn't have had those wonderfully special years. They did say it was a risk of the radiotherapy and unfortunately that's what happened, that's how it goes.”
Our hearts go out to this family during this time.
