She was told 'it's nothing to worry about'... weeks later she was dead

A beloved mother was told her pain was "nothing to worry about" - just weeks before dying of pancreatic cancer. Catherine Vaughan had lost over five stone and was “abnormally” vomiting amid having no appetite when she was told she had coeliac disease.

49-year-old Catherine’s daughter, Jade Acton, from Walton in Merseyside, told how her mum had started to get pains in her stomach but had put it down to the grief of losing Jade’s dad.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, she said: “They were never aggressive pains but they were always there, she also lost a lot of weight. But in between all of this my dad passed away.

“She went to the doctors about the pains and weight loss, they took her bloods and she was told she had type two diabetes. We put her on a diet and started giving her the right foods but nothing changed.”

After weeks of trying new diets “nothing changed", said Jade, so they went back to the doctors. Jade said: “She was diagnosed with coeliac disease, [which is a chronic autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and prevents the body from absorbing nutrients from food].

“We were told it was nothing to worry about and just to be careful of the pancreas and things like that. We felt reassured knowing it was just coeliac and there was nothing to worry about. We altered her diet and thought things would be OK but the weight continued to drop off her. At this point she had lost around five stone.”

Jade said her mum was getting “more and more ill,” and she told the ECHO how she knew “something wasn’t right.” Jade said: “We went back to the doctors and they sent her for a scan, she said to me ‘I feel like something's wrong.’ I reassured her that it was just coeliac and that we can live with that.“

However devastatingly the scans revealed that Catherine had pancreatic cancer. Jade said: “We got the results over the phone, I remember the voice on the phone saying ‘you’ve got pancreatic cancer.’ My heart just shattered, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't believe it. I felt like I was in a bad nightmare, like it was real. This is my 49-year-old mum who now all of a sudden has pancreatic cancer. I was in disbelief, it was horrendous. I knew it was the number one killer.”

Following the shock diagnosis Jade said her mum “wasn't eating” and “lost all of her appetite.” She said: “Her stomach had swollen, she looked nine-month-pregnant. She had deteriorated, she couldn’t speak. She was a bag of bones. She was in hospital for two weeks and we got a phone call to go in and she passed away, just seven weeks after her diagnosis.

“It was absolutely horrendous, the most horrible thing I've ever had to go through in my life. It was a bad nightmare, having to watch my mum suffer like that is the most painful thing I could ever go through.”

Jade said how her mum was “one of a kind,” she said: “She was the light of everyone's life, she was the glue to the family and the centre of everyone's world. She was a happy go lucky person, who was loved by everyone.

“She only had to walk into the room and she would make everyone's day. She made everyone happy, she was the best mum and nan to my two children.”