Five times people's lives have been saved by friends and family
BBC Radio 5 Live has been hearing from listeners who had their lives saved by friends and family, who pointed out lumps, bumps and other concerning signs about their health.
Their stories flooded in after Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas thanked viewers on the One Show for helping her discover "concerning" symptoms in her body, when several viewers said they thought they had spotted a lump under her arm.
'A jokey punch was absolute agony'
Joel Moore’s experience on holiday 20 years ago changed his life.
“I had a very small lump at the top of my left arm which I hadn’t done anything about. I was on a camping trip with a couple of mates, one of them walked past and gave me a jokey punch on the arm and it was absolute agony,” he explained.
Realising that his reaction was extraordinary for a light knock on the arm, Joel - who was 23 at the time - said he went to see his doctor and was given a number of tests.
“It turned out that it was cancer,” he said. “Unfortunately, because I hadn’t done anything it had spread and I had to have my left arm replaced above my elbow, as well as my shoulder joint.”
Whilst thanking his friend Ed for saving his life, Joel urged listeners to get any lumps checked out: “If I had done something earlier they could have repaired the bone”.
'Doctors literally popped up out of the floor'
David McManus’ life wasn't saved by a friend or family member - his life was changed by a total stranger who drove into him.
David, from South Norwood in London, explained that the accident happened when he was crossing the road.
“I got hit by a car, I bounced off the side of it but the driver didn’t stop,” he said. “I wasn’t badly hurt, I was walking wounded, but a bus driver witnessed it and called an ambulance.”
David said he “reluctantly” went to hospital with a cut on his head.
When he was in A&E, he urinated blood and was immediately rushed into another unit.
“Doctors literally popped up out of the floor, it was quite extraordinary. I remember them scanning my abdomen, I could see my kidney and it was like a sponge, it was pouring out blood and I was filling up with blood,” he said.
David ended up staying in hospital for six weeks with a ruptured kidney, before being told he had a sarcoma tumour, which had caused his kidney to burst.
He added: “The guy who hit me with the car was a hit-and-run, he was never found, but he saved my life.”
'A shopping trip changed my life'
For Mary Mahon from Manchester, a normal day out shopping with her friend Jan Walsh turned out to be one of the most important days of her life.
Talking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Jan recalled the moment she spotted some swelling on her friend’s neck: “We were sat having a coffee and I said, ‘Mary, you’ve got a bit of a goiter coming up on your neck, are you aware of it?’”
Mary added: “It turns out I had thyroid cancer, but no, I didn’t know about it… Jan saved my life!”
As Mary was going through treatment for cancer, she sent flowers to her friend to thank her for noticing the lumps.
“I really didn’t think I had done anything special,” Jan said, “but if you see something, say something, because it could save a life.”
'I noticed a big cyst on his back'
Jo and her family go on holiday to Spain every year, and around 10 years ago, she noticed something she didn’t like the look of on her dad’s back when she was rubbing in his sun cream.
“I noticed a big cyst on his back which kept getting worse and a dark brown mark next to it,” Jo explained.
“My dad went to see the family GP, who said it was skin cancer and referred him to surgery.”
Jo’s dad ended up with a six-inch (15cm) cross on his back where doctors removed his cyst and the cancerous skin. He’s now 78 and has regular check-ups at the hospital where doctors monitor his skin.
He’s since had a small red mark removed from the skin on his shoulder.
Jo, who lives in Bristol, said: ”Thankfully it hadn’t spread to his lymph nodes and he acted on it really quickly.
“Every time a piece of his cancer is taken away, it’s helping someone else, because doctors can research it.”
'It could have been catastrophic'
Liam FitzPatrick told the story of how his son, a medical student, listened to his heart on a whim and caught something that could have been fatal.
“My son, Dan, had just spent two months learning about cardiology at university and he had come home for the weekend. He got his stethoscope out and listened to my heart, and then he went all professional on me,” he said.
Liam, from Hertfordshire, described how his son proceeded to recommend he see a doctor, which resulted in a number of heart scans and results he couldn't believe.
“It turns out Dan had discovered a congenital problem with one of my heart valves,” he said. “He also discovered that the main blood vessel coming out of the heart, the aorta, was actually splitting - that’s not something that’s usually picked up, it could have been catastrophic.”
