A woman who waited five months for cancer treatment to begin is now facing a waiting game to see how long she will survive.
From the decision to treat cancer to treatment beginning should take no more than 31 days but Helen Storrie has waited five times that target. Helen, 69, from Motherwell, has been told the cancer is incurable but her oncologist is unwilling to tell her how much time she has until she has her first three sessions of chemotherapy, which could slow the spread.
Great-granny Helen, a nurse for 40 years, has had breast cancer twice so cannot get radiotherapy and there is no possibility of surgery. Helen fears the cancer have spread further with all the delays.
She said: “I have had 25 letters in the five months I have waited cancelling appointments or changing them. These delays cannot have helped my chances.”
Helen was diagnosed with breast cancer in her right breast 13 years ago. She had a mastectomy but two years ago, it was detected on the opposite side.
She said: “I was taken into the hospital very, very quickly and had a partial mastectomy but nowadays they don’t remove the entire breast, just the infected area. They also removed lymph nodes.”
Helen seemed to recover well but in November she was on holiday in Benidorm when she began to feel ill and had a persistent cough.
She said: “I went to see my GP the day after I got home. My mother, father, two brothers and a sister all died with throat and lung cancer but they were all smokers and I have never smoked in my life. He sent me for an X-ray the following Monday and also had a throat examination. Within two days, I was contacted and told there was a tumour in my right lung.”
In the time she waited for an appointment at the Beatson, the tumour had grown and she was told she would be taken into hospital as soon as possible for an operation but a scan then showed scattered lesions on her bowel. Helen was moved from one consultant to another before seeing an oncologist who told her the biopsy showed the lung tumour was not the primary cancer.
She said: “I had my first treatment a few days ago but I can’t believe it has taken five months since they found the cancer to start treating me. It is neglect. I want other people to be aware that they need to speak up.
“I dread to think what other people without my medical knowledge or background could face. It is very worrying. I don’t know what kind of future, if any, I will have.”
Russell Coulthard, deputy director of acute services at NHS Lanarkshire, said: “I would encourage Ms Storrie to contact our patient affairs team.”
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