Bryony Thomas defied the odds after a devastating pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Five years on, she’s raising awareness and funds to help others survive the deadly disease
Cuddled up with her daughter, husband and cat Betty as they counted down the days to Christmas, Bryony Thomas tried hard to raise a smile for the camera.
Her little girl Eleni, then just eight, was fizzing with excitement about Santa’s imminent arrival – while Bryony and husband Tom were trying to come to terms with the news that the devoted mum had pancreatic cancer. “Looking back at that picture now, it feels pretty surreal,” says Bryony, of Stroud in Gloucestershire. “You can see the innocent joy in Eleni’s eyes, while Tom and I are trying to keep it together.”
Just days before the family posed for their annual Christmas snap, doctors had broken the news. “The statistics were terrifying,” says Bryony. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all the 20 common cancers, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK, while more than half of those with the disease die within three months of diagnosis.
At just 41, Bryony had made several trips to GPs and hospitals in the years before her diagnosis, desperate to root out the cause of her extreme fatigue. She’d been tested for everything from sleep apnoea and poor thyroid function to coeliac disease and anaemia, spending almost £5,000 on therapy, holistic treatments and private tests to find out the cause of her symptoms.
It wasn’t until December 2019 – when she noticed changes to her poo and urine and her skin began to turn yellow – that she finally got an answer. “When the doctor came in to break the news, there were two nurses with him,” recalls Bryony. “One was wearing the purple Macmillan uniform so I knew it was cancer. While Tom and I were deeply shocked it was pancreatic cancer, which we knew was the one you don’t want to get, we weren’t all that surprised. We had known there had to be something behind my symptoms.”
While fewer than 7 per cent of people with the disease in the UK will survive beyond five years, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK, Bryony is one of the lucky ones – meaning this Christmas will be truly special. “December 19 marked five years since my diagnosis so I’m really hoping I can finally start to breathe again in the months ahead,” says the 46-year-old. “Christmas in 2019 was a blur as we got our heads around what was happening. If I’m honest, having read the statistics I was quite accepting this was how I’d go. But with extraordinary care from the medical team who looked after me once I’d been diagnosed, I’ve been one of the lucky ones.
“After so long, the chances of it coming back are considered to be significantly reduced. It’s just terribly disappointing I’m an outlier. People with this disease deserve more than just hope.” Before her diagnosis, Bryony had seen eight GPs about her symptoms. Theories varied, but a common suggestion was she was exhausted as a result of being a busy working mum.
Then, in early December 2019, she struggled to get out of bed after a visit from friends and could barely eat for a week. “Within a few days, my pee was fluorescent yellow,” recalls Bryony, who runs a marketing consultancy company. “The day after that, it was like stewed tea. I took a sample to the GP and was sent home with antibiotics for a suspected urinary tract infection.”
By that weekend Bryony’s poos had changed colour and she noticed her skin was slightly yellow. She was sent for blood tests and a day later, when her jaundiced appearance was more pronounced, referred to hospital. “I delayed it for a few hours because Eleni had a Christmas show with her dance group,” she recalls. “I couldn’t miss it.” Later that day she received her diagnosis. “I went home with Christmas just around the corner and we did our best to keep things normal for Eleni,” says Bryony.
“Opening stockings was heartbreaking, and as she jumped into our bed on Christmas morning I really thought it could be our last together. We managed to go to the panto, Jack and the Beanstalk, and even though I was desperately jaundiced and exhausted, I kept going for her.”
On December 27 2019, Bryony answered the phone to discover medics had decided to operate.
“I remember getting the call at exactly 5.27pm,” she recalls. “Only one in 10 people with a diagnosis manage to have surgery, which is the only curative treatment for the disease, so I knew I was one of the lucky ones.
“I had a 14-hour operation on January 2, 2020, a fortnight after my diagnosis. Six weeks later, chemo began. They found a 3.2cm tumour and the cancer had spread into three lymph nodes and impacted a major vein, so things weren’t easy, particularly as the last few months of my chemo happened during Covid.
“But my treatment, and my surgeon in particular, were wonderful.” Now, having passed five years since her diagnosis, Bryony has joined Pancreatic Cancer UK’s More Than Hope campaign to push for more breakthroughs, more support and more survivors.
She will run the London Marathon in April 2025 in an effort to raise £2million to fund research into a pioneering diagnostic test for the disease. “From my experience and what I’ve learned about pancreatic cancer, early detection will make a huge difference to patient outcomes,” says Bryony. “I feel blessed to still be here, and to be looking forward to another Christmas Day and another visit to the panto with Tom and Eleni, who is now 13. But I want that for everyone else too, which is why more funding for research and greater awareness of the disease is so important. Everyone should have the same chance to live that I’ve had.”
Bryony Thomas is a lead voice for Pancreatic Cancer UK’s More Than Hope campaign. Find out more here.
