KAREN Davey has been left wheelchair-bound after her back pain and tingling toes were blamed on a gardening injury.
They turned out to be signs of cancer that robbed Karen of her ability to walk and left the previously active 54-year-old “completely reliant” on others.
Karen Davey, 54, was very active – enjoying hiking, swimming and abseiling[/caption]
But she lost the ability to walk after her cancer symptoms were dismissed as a gardening injury[/caption]
In February 2024, Karen began to feel more tired and achy than usual.
As she was hit with fatigue, hot flushes, and loss of appetite, she assumed she was experiencing symptoms of menopause.
But by March, Karen had developed pain in her kidney.
When she visited the GP, she was told she had back pain due to gardening, despite only having done 20 minutes, well within her capabilities.
Over the next two months, her symptoms worsened.
Karen stopped eating properly, lost weight and developed a temperature.
She eventually lost all sensation in her legs, as well as bladder and bowel function.
After being hospitalised for two weeks, she was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma in her kidneys, with a tumour wrapped around her spinal cord.
After one round of radiotherapy and six rounds of chemotherapy, Karen is in complete remission, but her tumour has had life-changing effects.
Due to the spinal cord injury it caused, Karen cannot walk and is now a full-time wheelchair user.
Karen from Launceston, Cornwall said: “I’d gone from somebody who was quite active before. I’d do a lot of hiking across the moors, I used to go cold water swimming all year round.
“One of the last things I did before I got ill was an abseil off a 120-foot viaduct.
“This isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing at this time of life. I’ve not yet been able to get back to driving or anything like that.
“I’m completely reliant on my husband, it’s messed up my social life, just going out to meet friends or going swimming or popping into town to look around the shops.
Karen is now wheelchair bound, though her cancer is in remission[/caption]
“Emotionally, it’s just completely messed me up.”
Since returning home from hospital in February 2025, Karen, who works as an administrator for an online psychiatry company, has had to reduce her hours to eight hours a week.
Her husband has had to give up work altogether to become her full-time carer.
For Karen, the delay in getting a diagnosis is particularly frustrating, and she is keen to spread awareness of her situation to help others experiencing something similar.
Karen said: “I had no idea that hot flushes would lead to all this.
“The symptoms you’ve got aren’t always menopause symptoms, and we need to be more mindful of that.”
Karen felt her symptoms were also dismissed by her GP and continued to be dismissed until she was eventually sent to the hospital.
According to various studies, only 20-30 per cent of people with spinal cord injuries are women, which Karen believes has contributed to her struggles.
What is non-Hodgkin lymphoma?
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is a type of blood cancer that affects white blood cells called lymphocytes.
It starts in lymph nodes or other parts of the lymphatic system.
You can get NHL just about anywhere in your body, as the lymphatic system runs through your whole body.
It most often starts in the lymph nodes and can affect several groups of lymph nodes around your body.
You can also find lymphoma in other body organs outside the lymphatic system, for example, the stomach or bones.
The most common symptom of NHL is one or more painless swellings in the neck, armpit or groin.
These swellings are enlarged lymph nodes.
You might have other general symptoms such as:
- Heavy sweating at night
- Temperatures that come and go with no obvious cause
- Losing a lot of weight (more than one tenth of your total weight over 6 months) and you don’t know why
Source: Cancer Research UK
She said, “It’s difficult getting information as a woman, I think because most spinal cord injuries are attributed to men.
“I just get annoyed that it was attributed to menopause and doing gardening when it needed looking into a bit more.
“I didn’t know anything about spinal cord injury and when my toes started going tingly, it didn’t occur to me that that’s what it was. There’s not enough information.”
Karen was put in touch with Spinal Injuries Association while in hospital.
The national charity supports people living with spinal cord injuries and is currently running a women’s health campaign, advocating for better access to medical settings for disabled women.
Dharshana Sridhar, campaigns manager at Spinal Injuries Association, said: “Karen’s story is a powerful reminder that women’s health symptoms should never be dismissed or explained away without proper investigation.
“Too often, women with spinal cord injuries face delays in diagnosis and unnecessary barriers to equitable care, leaving them to cope with life-changing consequences that could have been prevented.
“Across the board, women’s concerns are frequently overlooked and when disability or other intersecting factors are involved, the barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment become even greater.
“Through our women’s health campaign, we’re calling for better awareness, earlier diagnosis, and accessible healthcare for every woman, no matter her disability.”