Mum-of-three was told tiredness and lack of appetite was menopause... but the truth was devastating

A mum-of-three, who was told by her GP that her symptoms of constant fatigue and loss of appetite were due to menopause, was shocked to be diagnosed with incurable bone marrow cancer just days before her 46th birthday.

Louise Greenbank, 48, from Uddingston in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, started feeling extremely tired and had pain in her rib in June 2021. She thought it was because she was overworked at her job in a convenience store during the pandemic.

Despite visiting her GP several times, Louise was only told that her symptoms were due to menopause. But she suddenly found herself unable to speak or hold her head up because of extreme tiredness.

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Her husband thought she was having a stroke and rushed her to the hospital. There, a doctor told her she had cancer in the middle of the night when she was alone.

The next day, she was told she had multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer, and it was incurable.

Today, Louise is grateful to be alive after receiving a new drug combination called DVTD, which had just become available in Scotland.

Louise, who is now in remission after a stem cell transplant, said: "Before I got diagnosed, I couldn't go to work I basically couldn't get off the couch." She also shared her symptoms, adding: "I was just sleeping all the time, no appetite, I was going to the toilet a lot and I was getting quite confused."

She went on to explain how she was initially misdiagnosed: "They tried to blame it on the menopause because of my age I couldn't believe it."

In June 2021, Louise started