'I'm in remission for the first time due to new cancer drug'

A woman whose multiple sclerosis masked the symptoms of an incurable blood cancer has outlived her prognosis of three to seven years and reached remission for the first time in almost a decade.

Simone Boothe, 47, from Catford, south-east London, was diagnosed with myeloma in January 2017 after collapsing four times in two months.

She said it took several weeks of testing and four blood transfusions before doctors realised her crashing haemoglobin levels, which led to the collapses, were caused by the incurable blood cancer.

Boothe said a newly-approved drug, which she was offered in February 2025, was "absolutely, mind-blowingly, unbelievably successful." She added: "I feel like it saved my life."

Boothe said she had been experiencing the symptoms of MS, which can include fatigue, blurred vision, numbness in the body and muscle cramps, for more than a decade before her official diagnosis in 2014.

In October 2016, she collapsed in the street while walking to work one morning.

"That morning, I literally got up and I remember coming out the shower and thinking, 'It's going to be a good day today', because I didn't have many of the aches and pains I can have with MS when I wake up," she said.

"I headed out the house, I got halfway, maybe three, four minutes, and collapsed in the street."

She collapsed three further times in the coming weeks - and in January 2017 she was told that she had "multiple myeloma".

According to Myeloma UK, myeloma mainly affects those over the age of 65, and the most common symptoms include bone pain, recurring infection, kidney damage and fatigue.

Boothe said she was initially given between three and seven years to live, but with her unwavering positivity, she thought: "Nope, I'm going to be here much longer than that, that's not happening."

Over the following years, she went through 41 rounds of chemotherapy.

In February 2025 she was offered the newly-approved drug elranatamab. Three months later she was in remission for the first time in nearly 10 years.

Boothe's medical team at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust were given a national award for their commitment to patients with myeloma.

She said: "I was running out of treatment options and, overall, I was having chemo almost back-to-back for five-and-a-half years.

"But I had complete faith in my team. They have been absolutely remarkable from day one."

Boothe said that now she was able to walk again, she was focused on regaining muscle strength and slowly building an exercise routine.

"The dreams I had and the things I wanted to do that suddenly felt like they'd been taken away... now they're back on the table," she said.

"Until it happened, I had not realised I had given up on the idea of walking again or ever being in remission. I've been on cloud nine since… I can't stop smiling."

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