‘World leading’ scientist dies aged 29 after ‘pulled muscle’ turned out to be rare cancer
One of Britain’s top young scientists has died aged just 29, from a rare form of cancer originally diagnosed as a pulled muscle.
Kirsty Smitten was a “world-leading” expert set to potentially help save tens of millions of lives with a new type of antibiotic she had developed.
She was named a Forbes magazine’s ‘30 under 30’ scientist and in February this year was crowned FSB’s young entrepreneur of the year.
She passed away in hospital with her family beside her on 4 October, having spent the past seven weeks in Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
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.
Her ordeal began in November last year she was woken up the night with severe chest pain.
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.
But she insisted something was wrong so waited for 11 hours before a CT scan revealed a cancerous tumour in her right atrium.
At the time Ms Smitten, of Solihull, 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. They found the tumour but initially they didn’t think it would be cancerous because it’s really, really rare.”
Despite constant pain and weekly chemotherapy, she continued her work.
While doing her microbiology PhD at University of Sheffield, the scientist developed a new class of antibiotics treating multi-drug resistant bacteria.
“If we get the new drugs on the market it will potentially save tens of millions of lives,” she said of her work. ““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.”
Paying tribute, Ms Smitten’s sister-in-law, Sukhi Smitten told MailOnline: “Kirsty fought to the very end but this was such an aggressive cancer she couldn’t beat it.
“She kept saying how much she had to live for – her brother, Dan, is getting married in November and Matt and I are expecting a baby in February. She would have been the most wonderful auntie. We’re all heartbroken.”
