The 65-year-old solicitor was told she had a 3 per cent chance of survival after months of misdiagnoses. She has now set up her own charity to help other cancer patients
A London mum who fought eight months of misdiagnoses before being told she had one of the “deadliest common cancers” is in remission- despite initially being given a 3 per cent chance of survival. Yinka Sowemimo-Coker, 65, said the first sign that something was wrong was when she was “sweating profusely” while trying to climb a flight of stairs at a work event in April 2018.
That same month, the solicitor said she “suddenly” experienced back and stomach pain, and over the course of the next eight months, she was admitted to hospital a total of four times. During this time, doctors misdiagnosed her with anaemia and then a virus.
Yinka had surface-level blood tests and a colonoscopy that did not show abnormalities, so the only treatments she received were blood transfusions to increase her iron levels and intravenous paracetamol. But by the start of 2019, Yinka had lost so much weight that she went from a size 20 to a size six, she was jaundiced, and she could no longer walk properly.
“I was always going to the hospital and they were discarding me,” Yinka told PA Real Life, “I felt unseen. I felt unheard.
“Sometimes I was even thinking, am I sure there’s something wrong with me? I started to second guess myself. And all that time, something was really wrong.”
In January, Yinka’s condition became critical with a fever over 40C so she was admitted to King’s College Hospital and stayed for three weeks, where she finally had a “whole manner of tests” and her pancreatic cancer diagnosis was confirmed. This is when Yinka was told she had a 3% chance of survival.
Pancreatic cancer kills half of all people within three months of diagnosis, according to charity Pancreatic Cancer UK. This is because diagnosis often comes too late as symptoms are vague and may not appear until the disease is at an advanced stage.
However, Yinka’s scans now can’t detect any cancer in her body following a surgery called irreversible electroporation – a treatment that uses electrical currents to destroy cancer cells – and six months of chemotherapy. The mother-of-two said she was never a “sickly person” before her diagnosis.
In April 2018, Yinka said she was “on the bigger side”, wearing size 20 tops and 18 bottoms, but she was “very active” and the level of fatigue she experienced while walking up a flight of stairs was unusual for her. Her mobility and pain issues persisted to the point she could not walk properly, so a neighbour called an ambulance, but doctors discharged her after two days.
Yinka said: “I knew I wasn’t feeling fine, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong with me. I can remember a particular time where one of the doctors said they were going to do a bone marrow (aspirate test for cancer) for me, and the other doctor said there was no need.”
In December 2018, Yinka was admitted to hospital for five days for a suspected virus that attacked her liver. She was rushed back to hospital on January 2, 2019 and was told her temperature was high, so she was treated with intravenous paracetamol before she would come back the next day for another blood transfusion.
But later that same day, a doctor friend from church visited and noticed how sick Yinka was and urged her to go to King’s College Hospital instead of the one she had been attending. By the time she arrived, Yinka said her temperature was over 40 degrees and she overheard a doctor say that her “systems (were) shutting down”.
During this three-week hospital admission, Yinka had “all manners of tests”, including an MRI, X-ray, PET scan and CT scan, before she was finally diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
As soon as she heard those words, Yinka said: “Immediately, I was quoting Bible passages. God said He created me beautifully and I was made perfect in Himself… How can I have cancer?”
Yinka’s daughter, Ope, asked a doctor what the survival rate was and when they were told it was 3%, Yinka said her daughter “started to weep”. Initially, doctors did not believe Yinka would qualify for surgery, but she was approved and underwent the 12-hour operation.
Yinka woke up to doctors telling her “You are a lucky woman”. She said: ““When I came to, my surgeon said it had been on the margin of what is possible. Left any later, surgery would have been impossible.”
Yinka had six months of the “maximum dose” of chemotherapy through a clinical trial and was told she had “no cancer detected” in her body by the end of 2019. Every year since, the Londoner has had two full check-ups and, although she had a scare with suspected bowel cancer in 2025, she said she is “very grateful” to have the support of people such as her surgeon, her consultant and Guy’s Cancer Centre.
Yinka set up her own charity, DChanger UK in 2021, which aims to give a “helping hand” to people going through cancer by providing personalised support through befriending and counselling.
She said: “I have used my own lived experience to support my community. I’ve been able to advocate for them.”
Reflecting on her cancer journey, Yinka added: “For now, all I can do is pray and remain positive. I am already so grateful that I am still here to tell my story.”
Pancreatic Cancer UK is urging people to support the ‘Demand Survival Now’ campaign online
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