I’m the first person in the WORLD to ever be diagnosed with my cancer

A mother has told how doctors believe she is the only person in the world ever diagnosed with cancer.

Alison Varley, from Ossett in West Yorkshire, said she is ‘terrified’ and doctors are ‘struggling’ with her unprecedented illness.

The 42-year-old starts chemo today but fears she won’t make it to Christmas, bluntly admitting: ‘I don’t know if it’s going to work.’

Ms Varley was diagnosed with a specific type of goblet cell carcinoma in 2021 after seeking help for what she assumed was a respiratory infection that was causing her difficulty breathing.

Antibiotics didn’t help, prompting her husband Matthew to finally call her an ambulance.

Scans from the hospital later showed she had fluid in her lungs – and a mass on her ovaries.

Goblet cell carcinomas develop in the appendix and probably occur in only one in a million people. They are more common in people in their 50s and 60s.

Ms Varley said she had been told the genetic makeup of her cancer is ‘like no other in the world’.

Since her diagnosis in late 2021 — just six months after her third child, Delilah, was born — the cancer has spread to her rectum and abdomen.

I remember the news, Mrs. Varley said: ‘I thought I had a chest infection and couldn’t breathe properly.

‘I went to the doctor and was given a week’s course of antibiotics. They didn’t touch it.

‘I went back and had three days left and my husband told me to call 111 and they sent an ambulance.

‘They did a CT scan and found five liters of fluid in my right lung. They tried to drain the fluid, did a CT scan and found a large mass on my ovary.”

She added, “It’s rare after rare. There is no one with my cancer. Its genetic makeup is like no other in the world.

‘There are people with a goblet cell, but not with the genetic makeup.

“That’s why they (doctors) struggle with me, because there’s no one in front of me.”

Goblet cell carcinoma often affects only the appendix and is usually only discovered during tests or treatments for other conditions, such as an appendicectomy or small bowel resection.

In some cases it can be treated through surgery, which involves removing the appendix and surrounding tissue.

In other cases, however, as the body fights the disease, a mass of fluid may form.

According to Neuroendocrine Cancer UK, chemotherapy and immunotherapy are offered if there is a higher risk of the cancer returning.

Mrs Varley, who is under the care of St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, The Christie in Manchester and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, underwent surgery to remove her appendix, followed by a complete hysterectomy.

Immunotherapy initially successfully reduced the size of the tumors in her abdomen and rectum.

But, she claimed, it caused a side effect that caused the cancer to grow.

She added: “They stopped that immediately. If a cancer grows during treatment, it can further worsen the cancer. I was kind of put on a ‘watch and wait’ list.”

Over the course of nine months without treatment, her cancer grew ‘slightly’.

However, since then Mrs Varley has also had pain in her intestines. A colonoscopy last week showed that the tumor had grown further.

“An oncologist came to see me and he said the cancer has grown and he thinks it’s in the intestine,” she said.

‘It has grown quite a bit and that is shocking. I just had a colonoscopy in November and he said it was clear and fast forward to March.”

Mrs Varley, WHO also shares her son Charlie, 20, and Daisy, four, with Matthew, started chemotherapy today, which she said will last about three months, to help prevent further tumor growth.

‘I’m absolutely terrified. “I’m scared for my children,” she added.

‘It’s worrying because I’m going to try chemotherapy. I don’t know if it’s going to work.’

In an attempt to cover daily costs while Mr Varley takes unpaid leave to care for Daisy and Delilah, her friends have launched a campaign. JustGiving pageraising over £3,000 in just two days.

Ms Varley said: ‘It’s hard not to talk about dark things when you’re in my shoes.

‘I don’t know if this will be my last Christmas or birthday with them. I don’t know what’s going to happen. They said the cancer was stable, but suddenly it’s growing. I do not understand.’

The donations “truly mean the world,” she added.

‘When I’m unwell and curled up in bed because I can’t move, my children have food in the cupboards and I can turn on the heating when it’s cold.’