Ossett mum 'first in world' to be diagnosed with rare type of goblet cell carcinoma
A mother-of-three says she is the first person in the world to be diagnosed with an ultra-rare cancer type.
Alison Varley, aged 42, from Ossett in West Yorkshire, went to hospital after suffering what she thought was a chest infection in 2021.
A CT scan revealed five litres of fluid in her lung and a large mass on on her ovary.
The cancer, which had started in Alison's appendix, had also travelled into her bowel and rectum and she was diagnosed with a particular type of goblet cell carcinoma.
Alison said: "It's rare upon rare upon rare. There is no one with my cancer. The genetic make-up of it is like no other in the world. There are people with goblet cell, but not the genetic make-up.
"That's why they're struggling with me because there is no one in front of me [with it.]"
What is goblet cell carcinoma?
Goblet cell carcinomas are a sub-type of cancer of the appendix.
They most typically present either as appendicitis or abdominal pain and a mass.
They are extremely rare, affecting an estimated one in two million people.
The average age of diagnosis is between 50 and 60 years and most patients are white. Males and females are equally likely to develop this type of cancer.
In females, they often spread to the ovaries and can be easily confused with ovarian cancer.
Alison was referred to three different hospitals following her diagnosis in 2021, six months after her second daughter, Delilah, was born.
Despite immunotherapy, her cancer has developed. She is now due to begin chemotherapy, which should last for around three months.
Alison said: "I'm absolutely terrified. I'm scared for my kids. Even now they are at home and they love mummy, of course they do, and I just see Daisy, 'Mummy, why are you still at the doctors, mummy, why aren't you coming home?'
"It's worrying because I'm going to be trying chemotherapy. I don't know if it's going to work."
As she undergoes treatment, her friend Adam Billington has set up a fundraiser to help with costs of day-to-day life as Alison had to retire after her diagnosis.
He said: "I organised it because I know what she's gone through. We have been best friends since 1989 - everyone loves her and the way she parents her daughters, it's just amazing to see but the financial situation - she is going to suffer. "
Alison said: "It really does mean the world to me. I appreciate every last one of them. Just anything that has been given. When I'm poorly and curled up in my bed because I can't move, my kids will have food in the cupboards and I can put the heating on when it's cold."
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