Rachel Dickinson's mum was the matriarch of the family. She always put others first and even when she was going through chemotherapy after a diagnosis of breast cancer, she was still there each Thursday to pick up her granddaughters from school.
So when her mum, Anne Cragg, became unwell again amid the pandemic in 2021 and started to complain of horrific stomach pain, they knew something was very wrong.
GP practices across the country were forced to limit face-to-face appointments and despite Anne's deteriorating condition, it took months before she was seen by a doctor.
What followed was multiple trips to A&E, hospital consultations, and discharges with pain relief medication until a scan showed Anne had a large cancerous mass in her pelvis.
Just days after the family was told that their 'supergran' was riddled with cancer, she died, all alone in a hospital bed.
Rachel, 49, believes that if her mother had been seen by a doctor earlier, she might still be here, or at least had longer to live - just like with the case of David Nash, the 26-year-old student who died on November 4, 2020, after remote GP consultations.
And it still haunts her, almost two years later, that she was robbed of precious time with her mother in the final stages of her life, as they abided by lockdown rules while Prime Minister Boris Johnson partied at No 10.
"The thought that Boris Johnson was partying, whilst I was staying away from my mum makes my blood boil," Rachel told the Mirror.
"I can never get that time back again. He believes he is above the law. He is laughing in the face of all of us."
Anne, a retired teacher from Littleborough, Greater Manchester, started to become unwell with an ongoing Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) in April 2021.
She had a couple of telephone consultations with the advanced nurse practitioner at Littleborough Group Practice and was prescribed antibiotics.
But the 71-year-old's condition worsened. She was unable to sit down or lie down, was struggling to eat, and complained of chronic stomach pain - which saw her visit A&E twice.
"She stopped being able to walk a lot, she was just slowing down," Rachel recalled.
"My mum wasn't someone to go to the doctor at the drop of a hat, we knew it must have been bad for her to contact the GP.
"She was selfless, would suffer alone, she'd fight and battle on.
"She was a very proud, very strong woman, and she just wouldn't let us see her like that."
Seeing as Anne had a history of stage three breast cancer, they thought she would have been referred immediately.
Rachel's dad, Anthony, became his wife's carer, and fought for her to be treated - at a time when there were huge waiting lists amid a backlog of cases.
He begged the surgery to see Anne, and even wrote a letter. She was finally seen on July 13.
But there was still no diagnosis and tests taken after seeing a urology specialist came back clear.
"My dad is traumatised by the whole experience. I do believe he has PTSD from it," Rachel added.
By August, Anne was referred to the Clinical Assessment Unit at Rochdale Hospital and was then booked in for a scan on August 14 at Fairfield Hospital in Bury.
It was at this appointment that Rachel, a primary school teacher who lives in Wigan, realised just how unwell her mother was.
They had barely seen each other amid coronavirus restrictions and had only spent one day together in July at her niece's birthday outdoors.
They kept in touch over the phone, but eventually, Anne didn't have the energy to speak.
An incident saw Rachel having to climb over the door in the hospital toilets after her mum had collapsed in a cubicle.
"I hadn't realised how ill she was. She probably used every last bit of energy to try and be like herself - to be the strong one, the mum," Rachel said.
A week later, Anne collapsed at home and fell down the stairs. At this point, test results came back from the scan, showing there was a mass in her pelvis.
She was admitted back to Rochdale Hospital and was discharged three days later.
But over the Bank Holiday weekend, Anne deteriorated minute by minute. She was unable to swallow the prescribed morphine tablets and was admitted back to Fairfield on Tuesday, August 31.
It was here that the family was told that the mass was cancerous, and had spread across her body.
They had arranged at-home hospice care and waited for her to return home three days later, but she never arrived.
Anne passed away on Friday, September 3.
"We never got the chance to arrive at her bedside to say our goodbyes. She had to leave this world alone," Rachel said, tearing up.
"I felt so guilty because I don't understand why I didn't sit with her in hospital whilst we waited for the ambulance.
"That is my biggest regret."
Rachel says they don't know if her mum died peacefully, as she claims there were no medical notes for the last four hours of her life - which she says the hospital put down to untrained agency staff.
"We weren't informed that she was slowly leaving us," Rachel said.
"We couldn't find out if she was at peace. That is the closure we needed that we didn't have."
Just like the parents of David Nash - the 26-year-old law student who died after four remote GP consultations - the mum-of-two feels let down.
David's parents, Andrew and Anne Nash, fought for more than two years to find out whether he would have lived if he had been seen in person by clinical staff at Burley Park Medical Centre, in Leeds.
In January, a coroner ruled it was likely he would have lived if he had been given a face-to-face appointment.
He had developed mastoiditis in his ear which caused an abscess on his brain, leading to his death, the inquest heard.
"My mum's treatment for the end of her life was disgusting - every single step was just horrific," Rachel commented.
"She was dedicated to her family, was a Catholic, never argued with anybody, she was just a selfless person. She never wanted you to worry about her.
"At the end of the day, the GPs are at fault. She had the classic signs of cancer - she ticked every box. But it was a postcode lottery trying to get an appointment."
Rachel also feels robbed of quality time with her mother in the final stages of her life as the family abided by lockdown rules whilst those in power hosted booze-fuelled 'work gatherings' - which 'haunts her' to this day.
On Wednesday, Boris Johnson was grilled by a panel of MPs from the Privileges Committee investigating whether he deliberately misled MPs over lockdown gatherings.
Johnson strongly defended multiple lockdown events as having been "essential", including one where he was pictured raising a glass at a leaving do.
However, he admitted on social distancing guidance: "I’m not going to pretend that it was enforced rigidly."
Rachel says they were set to celebrate her parent's Golden Wedding anniversary in 2020 - which was meant to be a surprise party with guests coming from different locations across the country, with balloons, banners, and party food planned.
But it was cancelled because they followed the lockdown rules. They never had the chance to celebrate in the end, as Anne became unwell as the restrictions were lifted.
"Even when visiting my mum in her final days with us, we were still sticking to covid rules by wearing face masks at her bedside," Rachel reflected.
"I didn't see Boris Johnson wearing a facemask at his party.
"What has made losing my mum harder than anything is the fact that it happened in the middle of the lockdowns.
"We had hardly spent a lot of time with her before she became ill because we were following the rules and not visiting each other.
"We could only keep in touch by phone. This haunts me to this day."
Rachel has filed a formal complaint to the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) over Anne's care and is now taking her complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
The Mirror approached NCA for a comment, along with Littleborough General Practice - who declined to comment.
Dr Vicki Howarth, medical director at Fairfield General Hospital, an NCA hospital, said: "We apologise for any distress caused when our communication standards fell below what our patients and their loved ones should expect to receive.
"We have sent a detailed response to the concerns raised by Rachel and Nicola but we'll also get in touch should they wish to discuss any aspect further."
For GP complaints, people can complain directly to the practice or via the Integrated Care Board (ICB). Find your local ICB here.
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