Woman treks Alps after pancreatic cancer agony

Dawn was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer following a holiday in 2014

A woman who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after experiencing "unbearable pain" while on holiday has now trekked the Alps.

Dawn Clayton, 60, was on a family holiday in Majorca in 2014 when she started to experience extreme abdominal pain.

Tests carried out by specialists found the former nurse had cancerous cysts on her pancreas.

Dawn, who lives in Caerleon, Newport, now wants to raise awareness and money for research and has now completed a just over 62-mile (100km) trek.

In 2014, Dawn began to experience pain in her upper abdomen which she initially thought was indigestion.

After a few days, the pain had not subsided and she was admitted to hospital in Majorca.

She was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis and, once she returned to the UK, had her gallbladder removed.

The following year she felt the same intense pain and tests revealed she had cancerous cysts on her pancreas.

"I was terrified and in shock and I knew what was happening to me. They say having a bit of insight from being a nurse helps, but it doesn't," she said.

As the cancer was caught early, Dawn underwent a whipple procedure in Newcastle, where she had part of her pancreas and other organs removed.

After a week recovering in hospital, she travelled back to Wales and had three chemotherapy treatments a month for five months.

Dawn and her husband Paul raised more than £3,000 during their trek

When she was first diagnosed, Dawn left her job as a nurse but, in 2019, she returned to university to complete her return to practice registration.

"I loved my job and I wanted to return to make sure that patients were having the best experience," she said.

However, on the last week of the course, she collapsed with a familiar pain, just a few months after her five-year mark of being cancer free.

After a call to her surgeon and further tests in Newcastle, scans showed pre-cancerous cysts in her pancreas.

In January 2021, she had her pancreas and spleen removed in two operations.

Now, four years later, Dawn has adjusted to life without these organs, as well as a diabetes diagnosis.

What is pancreatic cancer?

Pancreatic cancer is found anywhere in the pancreas and does not cause symptoms in the early stages but, as it grows, they start to show, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Symptoms may not be specific to pancreatic cancer and they may come and go to begin with, which can make it hard to diagnose, while some people may not have all the symptoms.

In August Dawn and her husband Paul raised £750 for Tenovus Cancer Care after climbing more than 30,000ft (9,144m).

They started between the alpine capitals of Germany Garmish-Partenkirchen and Austria, Innsbruck and trekked the Tyrolean Alps over eight days.

"It was very challenging. We did come across some complications with my health but after some treatment we took it easy for the last part of the trek," she said.