“I feel increasingly optimistic about the future” – Gemma’s myeloma story
When personal trainer Gemma Seager, 45, injured her back while lifting weights, she assumed it would improve with rest. But after 10 months of pain, she was diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in June 2021. Thanks to treatment, she currently has no evidence of disease in her body and recently completed the London Marathon.
During the pandemic in 2020, I was working as a personal trainer, meeting clients for outdoor workouts. In retrospect, I was feeling very tired, but I was still active, running long distances, and had no reason to think there was anything out of the ordinary going on.
In August, I was working out with weights at home when I slipped, and my body twisted at an angle. I immediately felt my back go. I assumed it was just a gym injury that would pass, so I dealt with it by resting, doing gentle yoga and dialling back on my running. But every time I thought the pain was easing, it would return. In terms of recovery, I felt as though I was taking two steps forward and one step back.
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By mid-December, when things had still not improved, I made an appointment to speak to my doctor, who referred me to a physio. By then, my pain had worsened. It was making me feel nauseous and I was finding walking difficult. I remember ordering a TENS machine on Christmas Eve in the hope of easing the discomfort.
Back then, it was virtually impossible to get a face-to-face appointment, so I spoke with the physio online. She suggested some ibuprofen gel and gave me a series of exercises to do at home. But these just made my pain worse. I decided to stop all the exercises and rest completely. She discharged me in January and told me to call again if I was still not better in three months. By mid-March, having barely moved at all for several months, my back had improved and I tried some gentle yoga exercises. The agony immediately returned. At this point, I assumed I must have a slipped disc.
I knew this pain was not normal, so arranged another video call with the physio. I felt she had been quite dismissive the first time round, but I didn’t want to be seen as making an unnecessary fuss. She asked me to do some exercises to assess my movement, but I found them impossible. It was not just a question of the pain, I physically couldn’t do what she was asking. I had been a personal trainer only a few months before – so it was not that I was weak – but I struggled to lean forward or raise my hips off the ground.
Around this time, I was also struggling to sit, and eating with cutlery or even brushing my teeth was painful. I was experiencing tingling and shooting pains in my legs. The physio suggested that I needed to relax, that stress was making it worse. I wonder now whether all these warning signs would have been picked up sooner had we not been in the middle of a pandemic and I had been able to have an in-person appointment. I was made to feel as if it was all in my head. However, she agreed to refer me for an MRI scan, but there were no appointments available for another three months.
In mid-April, I had a terrifying experience in the middle of the night. I woke up feeling as though I had electric shocks going down my legs. I was unable to walk and couldn’t support myself. It was obvious that I was getting worse. By now, I could not sit down for a meal and was having to eat standing up.
My GP was amazing and arranged for my MRI scan to be urgently brought forward. This showed I had a collapsed vertebrae and I was kept in hospital for five days while further investigations were carried out. I was not frightened at this point, I just wanted answers and to be honest, I was grateful that I was being taken seriously. I felt validated. Lesions were found on my shoulder and sacrum. Finally, I had an explanation for my pain.
‘I didn’t think about the future, just the present’
I was called back to see the haematologist on 10 June 2021. My husband was allowed to come with me for the appointment, so I knew there was going to be bad news. Up until then, due to Covid restrictions, I had been through everything alone.
I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. It was not a total shock to me, as I had done a huge amount of research and I was pretty clued up. It is hard to hear you have an incurable disease, but I was pragmatic. I didn’t think about the future, I just had to deal with it in the present, one day after the other. It was only later, when I had started to recover, that it all hit me emotionally.
From June to October I had chemotherapy, and then I spent Christmas 2021 in hospital undergoing a stem cell transplant, which was thankfully successful. The stem cell transplant gave me a good partial response, but there was still some evidence of disease in my blood, so in April 2022 I started on the targeted treatment lenalidomide, which I have been on ever since.
Treatment has not been smooth sailing. The stem cell transplant put me into menopause with all the discomforts that come with that. I have also experienced some side effects from the lenalidomide, predominantly fatigue and joint aches. But thankfully, there is now no sign of disease in my body. The doctors tell me my disease is ‘undetectable’. I know it is incurable, but in my head, I like to think of myself as being in remission.
‘Cancer research is saving people’s lives’
I am still monitored with blood tests every four weeks, but my life is slowly returning to some semblance of normality. Since my diagnosis, I have trained as a cancer exercise specialist and I am hoping to start doing online consultations with clients in the next few months. Completing the London Marathon recently was very emotional for me - four years ago I could barely walk, and I didn't think I'd ever be able to run again, let alone complete a marathon!
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Image: Gemma running the London Marathon 2025 Credit: Sportograf
I certainly feel hopeful about the future. When I was diagnosed, I was told that living 10 years was a reasonable expectation. But I have seen people who have lived much longer than that. And new treatments mean that I can be hopeful of that too. Of course, no one knows what will happen in the future, but I do feel increasingly optimistic. So much so, I am now thinking that I should have taken out a pension!
Cancer research is incredibly important. We talk about a cure for cancer, but it is not just one disease. It is vital we have different types of drugs – not just chemo – to treat different types of cancer. I know that new drugs have become available, even since I was diagnosed, and it is great to have so many options. I know that a few years ago, the situation was bleak for anyone diagnosed with myeloma. Now there are new drugs and more hope. Cancer research is not cheap, but it is saving people’s lives.
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