Dad-of-four given just days to live after complaining of stomach ache

Sat by her husband’s bedside, Kimberley Nicols watched doctors and nurses gather in the hospital corridor. When they walked into his room together, she knew.

A consultant knelt down next to Jonathan and took his hand. That’s when they broke the news. His leukaemia treatment was no longer working and there was nothing more they could do.

“How long?” Kimberley asked, scared of the doctor's reply. No matter how fearful she was, nothing could prepare her for his answer.

“Weeks,” he said.

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Fit and healthy Jonathan, 45, first started experiencing symptoms back in the summer of 2021. The dad-of-four began suffering with stomach aches, fatigue and weight loss - seemingly out of the blue.

A keen runner, Jonathan put the weight loss down to the fact he was running 30k a week. But when his strange symptoms persisted, wife Kimberley urged him to get checked out.

Jonathan visited doctors and had a routine blood test. Medics wanted him back for further checks just to be safe.

It was a wet and miserable Saturday afternoon when he got the call. Doctors wanted to see him at a hospital in Liverpool to discuss his results.

“He went in there really positive thinking everything was fine to be fine,” Kimberley, 47, told the Manchester Evening News. “It was going to be nothing.

“He was told a consultant was coming over from Manchester. That gave him concern – that someone was coming over on a Saturday afternoon. By this time, I was ringing and upset. I wanted to know what was going on.”

While at hospital, Jonathan accidentally text Kimberley his medical notes. That’s how she found out Jonathan had chronic myeloid leukaemia.