{"id":270470,"date":"2025-07-17T22:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T22:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270470\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T22:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T22:44:10","slug":"woman-26-doesnt-know-how-long-she-has-to-live-after-devastating-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270470\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman, 26, doesn’t know how long she has to live after ‘devastating’ news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea was told she could have a cold before she found out what was wrong\"ChelseaChelsea noticed a lump on her neck two and half years ago(Image: Chelsea Jones)<\/p>\n

A woman who was told she might have a cold has been given a devastating diagnosis. <\/a>Chelsea Jones, 26, from West Derby<\/a>, noticed a lump on her neck around two and half years ago.<\/p>\n

During numerous visits to the doctors<\/a>, Chelsea was told it could be down to various issues, from her grinding her teeth to just having a cold. It was only last month that she was told she had acinic cell carcinoma and a parotid gland tumour.<\/p>\n

According to Cancer Research<\/a>, acinic cell carcinoma is a form of cancer that develops in the acinar cells which produce saliva.<\/p>\n

It is a rare form of cancer that accounts for a small percentage of all salivary gland tumours, typically between 1% and 6%. The organisation adds there is a \u201csmall risk of a cancer developing within the tumour\u201d.<\/p>\n

Macmillan Cancer Support<\/a> says there are several types of cancerous salivary tumours, but this type of cancer tends to develop in younger people more than most other salivary gland cancers.<\/p>\n

The most common symptom of salivary gland cancer is swelling on the side of your face.<\/p>\n

Chelsea has been told it is not curable and is guaranteed to return. Speaking to the ECHO, Chelsea said: \u201dI have had a lump in my neck for two and a half years. Doctors have been telling me that it is glandular fever and that I had swollen lymph nodes. They also said to me that my saliva glands were blocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they told me that I had TMJ, which is when you grind your teeth, so I spent hundreds of pounds on gum shields. They said it was a common cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, I kicked and screamed to get a biopsy two and half weeks ago. I said, it\u2019s not a lymph node, it\u2019s nothing to do with me grinding my teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the diagnosis on July 10 came as a huge shock to Chelsea. She said: \u201cI collapsed. It was a good job my mum was with me. It\u2019s insane, I\u2019ve never heard of anything like it.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a rare form of cancer. They did say it is slow growing, but they don\u2019t know for certain until I get another MRI scan on Saturday. Then I will find out if it\u2019s spread to anywhere else in my body and find out what stage the cancer is at, but I\u2019ve been told it\u2019s 100% not curable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will get the tumour removed in a few weeks and then I will start radiotherapy. They don\u2019t know how long I\u2019m going to live for because it\u2019s that rare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chelsea is frustrated that her cancer was undetected for years. She is now urging others to trust their instincts and get any symptoms fully checked out.<\/p>\n

Chelsea said: \u201cI just want to raise awareness, get people to check their lumps and not take no for an answer. Feel your lumps and bumps, study your own body. Since my diagnosis, I’ve actually found another lump at the back of my neck that I need to mention when I next go into hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know your own body, you know when something’s not right. If I can help one person, that’s my job done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea was told she could have a cold before she found out what was wrongChelsea noticed a lump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[105,6513,211,16,15,14589],"class_list":{"0":"post-270470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-and-fitness","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-west-derby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114871000433936197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}