Side-effect of cancer treatment that can devastate your life: Football manager’s wife Sharon Warnock describes her struggle with lymphoedema

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After the GP confirmed that it was in fact lymphoedema, Sharon had to wait nearly a month in agony before she was seen by a specialist nurse — by then, her right arm was 30 per cent bigger than her left.

‘The pain was terrible, as was the inability to use my arm,’ says Sharon, 46. ‘I was terrified it would never look normal or work properly again. It took nearly four weeks for me to get to see a specialist who could help me manage the condition and advise on the therapies I would need.’

Sharon has since undergone the few treatments that are available and, though her condition has improved, lymphoedema is incurable.

‘Although I don’t allow myself to get down and I don’t ask for sympathy, the fact is lymphoedema has taken over my whole life,’ says Sharon, mother to Amy, 19, and William, 16.

‘I have to think carefully about what I’m wearing and even just picking up my grandchildren [from her husband’s children in a previous marriage] for a cuddle is now impossible with my arm.’

Her husband, Neil, the Cardiff City football manager, adds: ‘I don’t think people realise what a severe condition it is and the life-changing effect is has. Her suffering was intensified by the lack of initial and immediate support.

‘Although she just got on with it, I could see she was struggling: she’d only just got over cancer and a mastectomy and then was faced with another devastating blow.’

There are nearly a quarter of a million people in the UK living with lymphoedema. The condition is often associated with breast cancer treatment, when lymph nodes — small glands that filter lymph fluid — are removed.

As a result, the lymph fluid, which contains immune cells and helps carry away waste, can’t drain as normal, causing swelling and ultimately thickened skin.

Around 25 per cent of breast cancer patients develop lymphoedema, but cancer treatment is not the only cause. For every cancer-related lymphoedema case, there are three non-cancer cases.

This so-called primary lymphoedema occurs as a result of a genetic fault that causes weakness of the lymph vessels.

It can affect men or women of any age and often runs in families. Secondary lymphoedema occurs when a healthy lymphatic system is damaged — by cancer treatment, injury or infection.

1c437cb2192a660e772ec076b186e89a Side-effect of cancer treatment that can devastate your life: Football manager's wife Sharon Warnock describes her struggle with lymphoedema

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