10 Jul 2025

Lisa remembers her beloved mum Janet

Lisa Dixon and her mum Janet Dixon liked nothing more than going together to watch their favourite team play – Lincoln City football club. The season ticket holders went every Saturday and would have it as ‘their time’. At 80, Janet was still fit and active enough to enjoy the game from the stands. But in 2022 Lisa got an early indicator that something wasn’t right with her mum.

Janet at a football match with her daughter Lincoln vs Morecombe

“Mum had been in bad car accident with my dad in December 2022,” said Lisa, 54, who lives in Lincoln and works as a graphic designer. “Dad was very seriously injured but fortunately after lengthy treatment recovered. Mum fractured her sternum and again fortunately recovered. But while she was in hospital she was given a blood transfusion. They said she was anaemic. No further investigations were carried out and we never knew how long it had been going on or why. But it was strange.”

Janet returned to her home in Lincoln to care for her husband of over 60 years, Colin, who had a long-term treatable blood cancer called essential thrombocythemia. But over the following 18 months she complained of feeling unwell. And then in April 2024 she suddenly lost the use of her legs and began to experience severe shoulder pain.

“She basically became immobile,” said Lisa. “The doctors at Lincoln County Hospital carried out every test you can imagine – X-Rays, CT and MRI scans. And blood tests. But they couldn’t find out what was wrong with her. She had no energy and started to look really awful with a grey complexion. Mum was always careful about her appearance and very house proud, but I noticed things starting to slip. Then she began having falls. Once we had a paramedic out to see her and he said he thought she needed tests for cancer. He remains the only person that flagged this up, despite all the appointments we had before and after this. After another fall we went back to A&E and they carried out more bloodwork. The doctor slapped her blood results on the table in front of us and said “there’s nothing wrong with your blood Janet”. It was an awful experience with no compassion, and we were again sent home.”

But Janet kept having falls – 10 overall. Again she was admitted to hospital and again tests failed to reveal the root of the problem. Eventually Janet was sent to a rehabilitation hospital in Louth where she began to flourish.

Janet with her husband

“She had her colour back, she was bright, she started walking about. We thought she’d be coming home. But after a haematology appointment one morning they immediately transferred her back to hospital in Lincoln. I didn’t know what was going on. I spoke to her on the phone and asked her about the results of her blood tests. She said they ‘weren’t great’. I asked her to be honest with me. And that’s when she told me they’d found out she probably had acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).”

Janet was admitted to the oncology ward where two days later a bone marrow biopsy confirmed her diagnosis. She was immediately started on chemotherapy.

“The treatment was awful. She experienced severe sickness, bleeding mouth ulcers and constantly had either a chest infection or UTIs. She was given IV antibiotics for the infections and also had repeated blood and platelet transfusions. She was either asleep and knocked out, or awake and out of her head on all the drugs – shouting, laughing, and even aggressive with the staff which wasn’t like her at all. My sister came over from Canada to be with her and help me and dad. The first haematologist was very kind to us but told us gently they was nothing they could do for someone Mum’s age and that she had some bad genetic markers which meant treatment wouldn’t work. But then we saw another one who’d actually already treated my Dad. I can’t explain why this happened but he said that she was responding to the treatment and would be able to go home and continue having injections there with the occasional trip to hospital for a transfusion. I was so shocked. She still appeared to be so ill. I said to him will she be able go to the football again and he said yes. We were so elated, I burst into tears with joy, I felt so overwhelmingly grateful to be given the chance to spend time with mum we initially thought we wouldn’t have. I thought someone out there is really looking out for us first dad then mum. I felt full of newfound hope.”

Tragically Janet didn’t get better and never got to go to the football again.

Janet and her daughter

“To this day I still don’t know what that doctor was talking about – I suspect he’d actually mixed her up with another patient. They couldn’t control the infections. She had daily blood transfusions and was a shell of who she used to be. After a week or so I went back to the first haematologist who was very kind to us. She confirmed that mum wasn’t bouncing back, and that their options were to either keep her alive longer at the hospital, or send her home to be cared for there. She would probably have two weeks to live. It was the most awful decision but we decided to take her off the medications and get her home.”

With help from the local care team and Marie Curie, Lisa and her sister Julie looked after Janet at home until she passed away ten days later on 22nd October 2024.

“It was awful. I used to joke that she was a cat with nine lives as she’d survived three major car accidents and dying on the operating table during routine gallbladder surgery. She was strong, but at the end she told me she couldn’t beat this. It was terrible to be given false hope by that one doctor. And I still don’t understand why her leukaemia wasn’t spotted earlier. The only person that flagged anything up was the paramedic.

“We had dozens of GP appointments and multiple trips to A&E – sometimes three times a week. Even when she was admitted to hospital and given scans and blood tests they didn’t seem to know what was wrong. It was a shattering experienced and I still cry every day. I’m doing my best to look after my dad now and juggle work and care for my elderly dog alongside grieving for mum. It’s hard. I’m grateful I have my sister to share it with and a very understanding boyfriend. But mum was let down by the system.”