'The skydive that changed my life forever'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A Cheshire woman has revealed how a reluctant decision to go on a skydive may have actually saved her life. Katie Anderson was just 34 when she faced her worst fears and leapt out of a plane – later suffering from debilitating pains in her shoulder.

Katie, from Northwich, had been experiencing strange symptoms in the run up to the dive but medics couldn’t pinpoint the cause. READ MORE: 'We worked on the Covid frontline - now we're travelling the world living off £1k a month' READ MORE: Horror as girl, 12, rushed into hospital and put in induced coma after vaping left her 'weak' They believed her stomach pains may have been irritable bowel syndrome and her tiredness was Covid.

But once the shoulder pains were added to the list of growing symptoms, Katie knew something was seriously wrong. It wasn’t until she finally had multiple scans and tests that she discovered she had bowel cancer – and it was stage four. "I would have done anything to get out of that sky dive but it was a blessing in disguise,” she said.

Katie, now 36, completed her skydive in June 2021 and was diagnosed with cancer a month later. She believes the force she felt from the harness when she opened her parachute put pressure on the main artery leading to the liver – where her secondary cancer would later be discovered.