Gabrielle, 32, says doctors initially failed to find the cause
A mum who blamed her lower back pain on sleeping on an old mattress was devastated when she was diagnosed with an aggressive leukaemia. Gabrielle Altoft says she started experiencing ‘horrendous’ lower back pain in November 2025 after swapping mattresses with her son.
The 32-year-old, who was also experiencing extreme tiredness and shortness of breath, says she initially put the back pain down to sleeping on a memory foam mattress that was a few years old. After painkillers failed to help ease the pain, the mum-of-three says she visited her GP who dismissed the pain as an injury and said they would refer her for physio.
Despite blood tests, Gabrielle claims doctors failed to pick up on any abnormalities when her white blood cell count came back low. The paralegal decided to purchase a replacement mattress – but says the pain continued to worsen to the point where she was ‘unable to walk’ and ‘doubled over in pain’.
After returning to the doctor for a separate gynaecology appointment, Gabrielle was referred for further blood tests on December 16th 2025. The following day, December 17, Gabrielle was asked to attend A&E urgently, where a doctor gave her the devastating diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive type of blood cancer.
Gabrielle says she ‘thought she was going to die’ when she heard the diagnosis and was rushed in to start chemotherapy treatment the following day. The legal worker is now urging other people to push for a diagnosis if they feel like something is wrong.
Gabrielle from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, said: “In November I started to get upper shoulder and neck pain and really horrendous lower back pain. I thought it was my mattress – we’d switched the beds round with my son and we’d changed the mattress so I just presumed that’s what the problem was.
“It was a king-size bed – it was in my son’s bedroom from when we’d moved in it was always just a short-term thing, but he didn’t have enough room in his room so we switched our double for his king. I couldn’t put my finger on anything else so I went to the GP and said I’m still really struggling with this back pain, it doesn’t seem to be easing off.”
Gabrielle claims her GP told her the pain would heal by itself and they would refer her for physiotherapy, but after buying a new replacement mattress the pain worsened. Gabrielle said: “Because we’d had the mattress for a little while, I just presumed it was no good for me.
“It was a memory foam one and I just presumed that it was a bit pants. I said to my partner we need to get a new mattress because I was really struggling – I was in a lot of pain and I hadn’t been able to walk the dog or anything.
“Later that month [November] we were away at my mum’s caravan and I was trying to walk the dog. I can remember starting the walk feeling perfectly fine, and then by the time I got back I was doubled over, I couldn’t move.”
Gabrielle says she returned to her GP with what she ‘thought was the superflu’ at the end of November. Gabrielle said: “I started getting various different infections and then what I thought was the superflu – I spent five days in bed sleeping for about six hours a day.
“I went into the GP and sobbed and said I’d never been unwell like this. They told me it was viral.”
It wasn’t until she returned to the doctor’s for a gynaecology appointment in December that Gabrielle was sent for further blood tests, which eventually led to her cancer diagnosis. Gabrielle said: “I had a pre-booked appointment with another doctor for gynaecological issues.
“I saw her and I said to her how bad my symptoms had been and that I wanted referring. She agreed to do more blood tests then it was an absolute whirlwind. The blood test was on the 16th, I was diagnosed the next day and by 11pm on the 18th I was admitted to hospital.”
Gabrielle says she ‘thought she was going to die’ when she received the devastating diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Gabrielle said: “I was weirdly accepting [when I received the diagnosis] because I’d been so poorly I knew that something was wrong.
“I thought I was going to die because of how ill I felt. I went home and it was really strange – it was all really surreal, I pretended that nothing had happened in front of the children. It was really tough.”
Gabrielle started receiving intensive chemotherapy treatment on December 28th 2025 and says she will undergo a minimum of two rounds. The legal worker says she is ‘disappointed’ that it took her so long to be diagnosed and is urging other people to ‘push for answers’.
Gabrielle said: “I feel disappointed more than anything. I knew if someone had taken the time to look through all of my blood results [at the start of November] it would have been very apparent that something wasn’t normal for me.
“Just push and push [if you feel like something is wrong], you know your body. Whether you’re 32 or you’re 18, your symptoms should be taken seriously. With AML, you don’t have long to have those symptoms looked at before your organs shut down.”
Leukaemia is cancer of the white blood cells. The NHS website explains that acute leukaemia means it progresses quickly and aggressively, and usually requires immediate treatment. According to the NHS, symptoms usually develop over a few weeks and become worse over time. These include tiredness, breathlessness, frequent infections and unusual and frequent bruising or bleeding.
The NHS website says that chemotherapy is the main treatment, however in some cases a bone marrow or stem cell transplant may also be required.
