Cancer-hit gran's tumours shrink in HALF after Christie Hospital drug trial breakthrough

A grandmother with advanced bowel cancer has praised a new 'wonder drug' that has seen her tumours shrink in half.

Terri Hurdman says that within hours of taking the experimental treatment - which is so new it doesn't have a name yet - she was able to walk up the stairs without getting out of breath for the first time in months.

The 49-year-old joined a clinical trial at The Christie Hospital for a new drug that targets a specific gene controlling how cancer grows. Ms Hurdman, from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, had been left exhausted and out of breath due to her cancer and struggled to walk a short distance or even talk on the phone.

But within hours of trialling the new drug she was climbing stairs with no effort and after three months scans showed her tumours had halved in size. Ms Hurdman, who has three children and six grandchildren, was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer on Valentine’s Day in 2020.

The previously fit and healthy factory worker, who was used to doing manual work for a firm producing medical supplies, initially thought her stomach ache may be irritable bowel syndrome, but her GP referred her to Kidderminster Hospital, which diagnosed her with stage 4 bowel cancer which had spread to her lungs. Ms Hurdman underwent three types of chemotherapy, which failed to work, and medics told her she had no options left.

By August 2021 she had become very ill, had lost 1.5st in weight and was becoming weaker, needing a wheelchair to leave the house. Her consultant at Kidderminster knew the Christie was investigating therapies which target the genes and proteins controlling how cancer cells grow and spread, and Ms Hurdman travelled to Manchester in September to see if there was a suitable clinical trial.

She