LDT. Young Dad-of-Four Joe Till Given Months to Live After Leg Pain Misdiagnosed as Sciatica
A dad-of-four from Lancaster who thought his leg pain was because of sciatica now has just months to live after he was diagnosed with an aggressive disease.
After Joe Till, 33, began to seek help for persistent leg pain at walk-in centres, he was told early on that it was nothing more than sciatica, but as his symptoms continued, he soon found himself unable to walk upstairs. Within months, the keen hiking enthusiast was diagnosed with stage four diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive type of blood cancer.
Now he has been told there is nothing more the NHS can do, with doctors saying he may only have three months to live, as The Mirror reports. Joe said: “I was getting pains in my leg and was up and down to walk-in centres. They told me it was sciatica but one day I found I couldn’t walk upstairs.
“It wasn’t like me. I was a big gymgoer and used to love hiking up mountains in the Lake District every weekend.”
In July 2024, Joe was given the devastating diagnosis and his treatment began. However, his spleen burst on the first day of chemotherapy, leaving him needing emergency surgery and a week in intensive care before he spent four months recovering in Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Joe said: “I then started to get pains in my arms. They did more tests and I was told there was no cancer.
“They referred me to a neurologist at Preston. After two days I’d lost all mobility from my shoulders down. My arms were like jelly and I had no strength to stand up or walk.
“At the end of a three-week stay they said there was a little nodule in my neck which could be cancer.” Joe returned to chemotherapy in Blackpool and began slowly regaining movement. But just six weeks later the agonising pains returned. He said: “I knew straight away it was the same thing.
“I was in Blackpool for around six weeks and eventually went home to start chemotherapy as an outpatient. Every time I did it, I couldn’t swallow or talk properly. I regularly had to be on a nose feed.”
Doctors then approved him for CAR-T cell therapy in Manchester, one of the most advanced treatments available and for a time, he seemed to have improved as he began training his legs again at home with help from his wife. Tragically, this was short-lived, and he soon discovered a new lump under his arm.
The cancer had returned and Joe tried immunotherapy and two rounds of radiotherapy which shrank the tumour slightly. However, on February 9 he was told there was nothing more the NHS could do.
Joe was left unable to talk or swallow properly while in hospital, leaving him on a nose feed(Image: Joe Till / SWNS)
He said: “They told me I had three months left to live. It flicked a switch in my head as if to say, I’m not letting this beat me. If it defeats me, the cancer must have been strong. I’ve got a wife and four kids to support. I’ve been really open with my kids. Over the past two years they’ve been used to receiving bad news.
“They took it badly to begin with but they’re resilient. They know I’m dying but I’ve got a bit better over the last few weeks. How long this is going to last, I don’t know.
“It would be unfair to give me chemo now with the condition I’m in. It would wipe me out.” Joe has vowed not to give up his fight and has launched a fundraiser to pay for additional private therapies while trying to ensure his wife and children can secure their family home.”
