Esther Shoebridge was diagnosed with myeloma. (Myeloma UK via SWNS) By Izzy Hawksworth via SWNS A grandmother who was given painkillers to cure her neck pain actually has told of her shock at discovering she had "millions of holes" and tumors in her body. Esther Shoebridge, 59, was diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer after she had months of "baffling symptoms" including unquenchable thirst and numbness.
She also suffered from neck pain, which was caused by the tumors, but she was just given pain killers by her doctors. Around five months after she first started experiencing symptoms, Esther was told by doctors she had 'millions of holes' in her body and had five years left to live. She said: "When the consultant told me, ‘You have millions of holes in your spine, neck and skull’, I burst into tears.
"All I could think was that my skull had millions of holes in it and was going to collapse into my head. "I had had symptoms for months. "I was constantly trying to hold my neck up and I even bought myself a neck brace.
Esther Shoebridge wearing a neck brace. (Myeloma UK via SWNS) "I had no idea my neck was actually broken and that two small tumors had blasted their way through my C3." The former optician first knew something was wrong in October 2020, when she was drinking around four liters of water a day but was still extremely thirsty.
Around two months later, she felt like she 'had cricked' her neck but two tumors were actually pressing against her C3 vertebra .