A 73-year-old grandmother claims her monthly manicures just saved her life after her manicurist noticed signs of lung cancer by simply checking her nails out.
Joan Martindale from Staffordshire noticed her toenails and fingernails are getting wider and thicker. When her thickened nails started to curve, she checked the symptoms on Google and found ‘nail clubbing.’
She discovered that nail clubbing could be a sign of lung or heart disease, but the grandmother told herself that such things would not happen to her.
“I noticed my toenails got wide and bulbous on my big toes. I don’t usually look on Google but I was curious and it said it could be something to do with heart or lung cancer,” Joan said.
“Touch wood, for my age, the doctors have said I’m in good health so I did think ‘oh no it’s not me, I’ll wait a little bit longer’.”
But Joan’s nail technician of 10 years, Lina Bartram, begged her to see a doctor when she noticed that her nails ‘bent right over.’
“Then when I went to have my nails done in March Linda asked if I was alright,” she said.
“I mentioned the swelling in my ankles and then she said she didn’t want to upset me, but that she thought there was something wrong with my nails and that they needed to be looked at by a doctor.”
The grandmother then underwent a CT scan and a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. She was shocked when doctors found a tumor in the top right lobe of her lung and she diagnosed her with lung cancer.
Joan endured a grueling 5-hour surgery to remove the 4mm tumor and now undergoing chemotherapy.
She also had some lymph nodes removed to see if cancer had spread.
“Going for a manicure saved my life. It was incredible she could pick it up from just looking at my nails,” Joan expressed.
“I’ve told her I shall be eternally grateful to her, when we’ve got rid of this COVID we’re going for a big slap-up meal.”
She added: “I’ll be eternally grateful to Linda because she really gave me the nudge and told me I needed to do something about it.”
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