Student, 21, thought she had a rugby injury before being given 'almost impossible' diagnosis

A 21-year-old student was told she had 'days to weeks left to live' after being given an 'almost impossible' cancer diagnosis.

Alexandra Angeles Caycho thought she was suffering from a rugby injury at first, the Liverpool Echo reports. The student started getting pains in her back and knees in February last year.

But at the age of just 20, Alex was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer. This was a 'big shock' after doctors told her this was 'impossible to get' at her young age, she said.

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Alex moved from Peru to Lancaster, where she went to university to study art and design in 2021. She first started suffering from pain last year.

She explained how her bowel movements then changed and 'things got weird'. She said: "I had a lot of pain but I played rugby at the time so thought I had just injured myself, but it never went away.

"I went to my GP and was told I had hypermobility and flat feet that could be causing the pain. It was so painful."

Over the next few weeks Alex's health started to deteriorate, her eyes had turned yellow and she couldn't sit for long. Her boyfriend, Dylan, took her to A&E where she was told she could have a problem with her liver.

Alex said: "It just spiralled from there. In June I ended up in hospital with minor symptoms, I was vomiting, had a fever and anaemia.

"I stayed in hospital for eight weeks, my symptoms were not changing. The sickness went away but then I had a bad stomach, blood was appearing and I was throwing up blood.

"I was getting infection after infection, every time one cleared another one settled somewhere. In that time I found out I had stage