I’m 67, and I’ve suffered from severe health anxiety for most of my adult life - and that could qualify for a post in its own right - but as I’m also someone who likes to drink alcohol, too, which I know can have links to cancer, so I thought I’d post on here. 

I stopped drinking completely at one time, albeit only for a short while, and now drink around 9-10 pints per week, I never drink spirits, and I only very rarely drink wine or anything stronger than beer. 

I had a full panel of alcohol related blood tests around 3 years ago, and also had Ultrasound scans and X-rays on my liver and my pancreas. I also had a full panel of similar blood tests and a CT scan 7 years ago, and each and every test came back totally normal though the CT scan showed I had a very slightly fatty liver which I was told could be reversed by a careful diet. 

All the above tests were carried out because I had a crippling fear of having cancer, and had seen my father - who wasn’t a drinker - suffer a truly horrible death from secondary cancer of the liver. This, coupled with the fact that I suffered from health anxiety anyway, meant that I was terrified that it was almost certain that the same fate would fall on me. 

in the past three years my life has progressed fairly smoothly - for me, and by my standards - but the last week has seen life my health anxiety heightened immensely by the onset of an over body itching for which, as you might imagine, I am attributing to to either cancer of the liver or cancer of the kidneys even though no other symptoms are present in any way, 

On the advice of NHS111 I am planning to go to see a pharmacist today to see if they can help, and fully expect that I’ll be back at my GP’s shortly for another frightening round of scans and tests.

I have no other symptoms of either of the two cancers mentioned - or cirrhosis - at all, so might I be right in thinking that it would be unlikely to be any of those if the itching was indeed the only possible symptom I have, or would all the other symptoms fall in suit along the line? 

I hope you won’t judge me too harshly, and I can imagine what people might say, but I’d be very grateful if you could help me with any help or reassurance you could offer me at this time.