One of the UK’s top young scientists has tragically died from a rare form of heart cancer originally diagnosed as a pulled muscle.
Kirsty Smitten, 29, was a “world leading” scientist set to potentially save tens of millions of lives with her new antibiotic medicine.
She passed away in hospital with her family beside her on Wednesday, October 4. She had spent the past seven weeks in Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
When she first attended hospital last November doctors thought she’d just pulled a muscle.
However, she later received a terminal diagnosis and was given just months to live.
Ms Smitten was named a Forbes under 30 scientist and in February this year was crowned FSB’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Her cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma, was so rare her surgeon had never seen it before. Only two people are diagnosed with it a year in the UK.
Speaking in March this year, she said when she first arrived at A&E with severe heart pain she was sent away by the GP and told to take codeine for a pulled muscle, reported Bristol Live.
She later insisted something was wrong so waited for 11 hours before a CT scan revealed a cancerous tumour in her right atrium.
Ms Smitten, from Solihull in the West Midlands, said: “Other than the fact I was in agony all my health was absolutely fine, I didn’t have any problems with heart rate or anything.
“But then they did a CT scan for my blood clot and found a 6cm tumour in my heart, which, obviously, was a bit of a shock, because I had no other symptoms prior to that. It’s been a bit hectic since then.”
She added: “They found the tumour but initially they didn’t think it would be cancerous because it’s really, really rare.”
She was later ranked on Forbes 30 Under 30 and her company received an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s emerging technologies competition.
She said: “If we get the new drugs on the market it will potentially save tens of millions of lives. A new class of antibiotics hasn’t reached clinics in over 30 years, and by 2050 antibiotic microbial resistance is expected to kill 10 million people, which is a death every three seconds per year. We would be able to prevent that.
“I now see how important my work is, because if I get an infection I have about an hour to get IV antibiotics before it becomes fatal because with chemo I don’t have an immune system at the moment. I still work, I just can’t work the same as I used to and I can’t go to as many in person things.
She added: “I think it’s hit a lot of our investments. A lot of the investors we have are very committed to me, and how I built the company and the passion I have for what we’re doing and my drive to take it forward.”
