'I thought I'd pulled a muscle - but it was actually terminal cancer'

Claire Turner, 43, received a shock terminal cancer diagnosis after believing she had pulled a muscle, with the torn ligament prompting her GP to refer her to a specialist

A mother-of-three believed she had pulled a muscle but was later told by doctors she had terminal cancer.

Claire Turner, 43, believed she had damaged her shoulder when trying to pass her daughter a croissant in the car. Problems arose when Claire, an accountant from Didcot, Oxfordshire, was in the front passenger seat of the car with husband Mark Turner, 49, last October. The family had been on a weekend away and when Claire turned to hand their 11-year-old daughter a croissant, she felt a twinge in her right shoulder.

What was assumed to be a pulled muscle and torn ligament became a concern weeks later as a £2 coin-sized lump soon appeared. The growth ballooned in size and over the next few weeks Claire found she was in extreme discomfort when wearing bras or carrying bags.

It was revealed she had stage four melanoma, a deadly type of skin cancer. Claire, who had used sunbeds in her 20s, is now facing an uncertain future and is warning people to avoid harmful rays to avoid the same diagnosis. Claire said: "It was a blessing that injury happened. I don't know what I did that day but obviously some movement made that tumour swell and move.

"We were off to the beach heading down for the weekend with friends to the coast. We had a packed breakfast for the children. As we were heading down they all said they were hungry. I passed breakfast, including a croissant, banana and bottle of water, back to one of them and I felt like I pulled a muscle.

"I thought 'that's painful' but then I carried on with the day. It was pretty painful carrying a bag and that night it was quite painful to lean back on it." Claire was given painkillers by her GP but says the shoulder did not improve, prompting her to book an online GP appointment which was when she was referred to a orthopaedic consultant.

Left waiting for a diagnosis over Christmas, Claire was left in pain and "went on a spiral over Christmas" as she was "expecting the worst." She added: "Melanoma is a dodgy mole and it goes from there, that's what I thought. It starts with a skin lesion, you look at it and ignore it, that's what I thought skin cancer was. The doctor said I had a 50/50 chance of coming out of the other side of this."

Claire underwent immunotherapy but had to stop in August after it caused inflammation to her pituitary gland and optic nerve. Despite her terminal diagnosis, Claire remains optimistic, adding: "I'm grateful I got it checked out. My nurse said to me that 10 years ago with my diagnosis I would be given six to seven months to live. That was quite shocking."