Man who thought he had indigestion given nine months to live

Lawrence Fox was put on antibiotics at first

A dad was given just nine months to live after his indigestion ended up being pancreatic cancer. Lawrence Fox, 67, first noticed something was when his wrong when food started coming ‘straight out’ of him in July 2024.

He said: “I wasn’t digesting my food properly, it was basically just coming straight out of me. One minute I’d want to go to the toilet, the next minute I’d have nothing, depending on when I’d eaten. I had the runs, my stools were very soft, and as soon as I was eating, within the next couple of hours I was going to the toilet.”

The former construction manager’s symptoms were originally put down to a condition he had suffered from before, diverticulitis, where the intestine becomes infected or inflamed. Lawrence, from Canterbury, Kent, was put on a course of antibiotics for the suspected infection, but when his symptoms didn’t get any better, he was told to get an endoscopy.

But when the procedure, carried out in August that year, failed to find anything, he had to wait until November to get a CT scan. To make matters worse, Lawrence’s mother was dying of sepsis – meaning he had put some of his symptoms, such as a loss of a stone in weight, down to stress.

He said: “At the time, I was more worried about my mum than I was. I was just glad I was getting it checked out.”

But by the beginning of December, shortly after his mother passed away, Lawrence was given the terrifying news that doctors had found a 75mm growth. He was told he had stage four pancreatic cancer and could have just nine months to live. Doctors said they couldn’t operate on the tumour, as it was near a main artery, so Lawrence was told he would need to start chemotherapy.

Lawrence said: “That wakes you up. My thought was – they obviously think I can take this chemo and they wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t think there was a chance of it doing something. So, I thought, if they’re going to give it to me, I’ve got to give it my all.”

According to the NHS, fewer than 10 per cent of people with the same diagnosis survive five years. Following 12 rounds of chemo for nine hours a day, Lawrence’s cancer has shrunk to just 15mm in size – meaning his cancer is no longer considered stage four.

The keen golfer has even since returned to playing the sport – after getting help from a golf pro to shorten his swing to work around the catheter inserted for his chemo. His 40-year-old son, Jamie, who lives with cystic fibrosis, was set to run the Brighton Marathon on Sunday, April 12, to raise money for his dad’s condition.

Lawrence has since returned to more activities as well as Pilates and he hopes to begin swimming again, thanks to help from Pilgrims Hospices. He is now urging anyone unsure about symptoms to get checked.

Lawrence said: “If you don’t feel right and it’s to do with digestion, if you keep getting indigestion or your bowel movements change for no apparent reason, get it checked out. It might be something and it might be nothing. It doesn’t cost you anything – just make the phone call to get it checked out.”