IDENTICAL twin girls have both suffered from cancer symptoms in the past five years.
But bizarrely, only one of them has the deadly disease.
Sophie Walker, 16, was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour – a type of kidney cancer – in October 2017 after experiencing stomach crampsSWNS
Sophie’s identical twin Megan began experiencing similar symptoms – including stomach and back pain, paleness – and even lost weight like her sisterSWNS
Megan has continued to experience symptoms throughout sister Sophie’s treatments and relapsesSWNS
Sophie Walker, 16, was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour – a type of kidney cancer – on October 25 2017, and started a four-week course of chemotherapy shortly after.
In the five years since, she has gone into remission twice – but relapsed four times. Throughout this time, her twin sister, Megan, has been experiencing many of the same symptoms.
After Sophie was diagnosed following stomach bug-like cramps, Megan began experiencing similar symptoms – including stomach and back pain, paleness – even weight loss.
The girls’ mum, Rebecca Walker, from Edinburgh, Scotland, said: “When Sophie was first diagnosed, Megan had all the symptoms. People comment on how ill she looks all the time – she’s even paler than her sister.
“Every test under the sun has been done on her, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. It’s so bizarre.”
After an initial 27 weeks of chemotherapy, Sophie went into remission until January 2020 – when a routine MRI showed ‘something worrying’ on her spine.
A consultant informed Rebecca that her initial biopsy had seeded on her spine – meaning the needle inserted into Sophie’s initial tumour had dislodged and spread cancer cells.
Following a three-week course of radiotherapy, a relapse in December 2021 and remission in December 2022, consultants told Sophie just three months ago that she’d once again relapsed.
Rebecca said: “We went to get Sophie checked out one day, and were told by the consultant she couldn’t feel anything there.
“But by the following day, we were called back in. All the consultant could say was that the results were ‘not good’ – and she started to cry.
“Sophie saw the look on her face and just broke down, for the first time in six years.”
Sophie’s dad, Jamie Walker, 44, left the room with Sophie to console her – meanwhile Rebecca stayed with the consultant to ask further questions.
She said: “I was told to take her away and make memories, while she’s well enough.”
What are Wilms tumours?
They’re a type of kidney cancer that mainly affects children.
Dr Max Wilms wrote the first medical paper about this condition, which is how it got its name.
Kidney cancer in children is rare but Wilms tumour is the most common type.
Almost 85 children between the ages of 0 and 14 years are diagnosed with Wilms tumour each year in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK.
They are most common in children under 5 – it’s rare to see them in older children and even rarer in adults.
Most Wilms tumours are quite large when they are found – often bigger than the kidney itself – and tend not to have spread to other parts of the body.
The most common symptoms is painless swelling of the tummy, which parents might notice when you’re bathing your baby or if your child jumps a nappy size.
Less common ones include:
bleeding inside the tumour causing pain
blood in your child’s pee – found in around 20 per cent of children with a Wilms tumour
raised blood pressure
high temperature
loss of appetite
weight loss
feeling or being sick
shortness of breath and cough (only if the cancer has spread to the lungs)
generally feeling unwell
looking pale due to a low number of red blood cells (anaemia)
being irritable due to their tummy feeling uncomfortable
Since the news, Sophie’s consultant has said she’ll be able to have the tumour on her spine operated on by a team of consultants, oncologists, pediatric surgeons and plastic surgeons.
Despite this ‘little bit of hope’ – Sophie is still struggling ‘deeply’ with health anxiety and depression – and Megan has been feeling the ‘exact same way’.
Rebecca said: “Megan just can’t settle if Sophie isn’t there. We have a big family and everyone looks out for each other, but Megan has been struggling hugely.”
Sophie and Megan have eight siblings – James, 20, Emily, 19, Ruthie, 17, Daniel, 13, Olivia, 11, Emma, nine, Nathan, eight and eight-month old Evan.
“While the older ones are looking after the younger ones in the house, Megan will stay in hospital by Sophie’s side, sometimes until 3am,” Rebecca added.
“She won’t leave her until she says, ‘I’m tired, I want to go to sleep.
“All throughout Covid, she wasn’t allowed to see Sophie as Jamie and I were her two named visitors. She couldn’t cope.
“As soon as those restrictions were slightly lifted, Megan wanted to see Sophie again.”
When Sophie relapsed in January, Megan also volunteered herself for a ‘head-to-toe’ MRI scan.
“Nothing showed up, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her,” explained Rebecca.
“Consultants are telling me it’s just a ‘twin thing’ – which I find totally bizarre. I’ve never heard of identical twins getting sick at the same time, when one isn’t even ill herself.”
The Walker family are currently running a GoFundMe to raise funds for proton therapy in New York – after receiving surgery in Scotland on a date to be confirmed.