‘Food allergy’ was actually cancer

LONDON: A primary school teacher died from cancer after doctors fobbed her off ’ for months by saying it was a food allergy, her parents said.

Claire Tomlinson, 35, visited her GP surgery 10 times in five months complaining of stomach and back pain.

Doctors suggested she might be suffering from a food intolerance and urged her to cut out bread to see if she was allergic to wheat or gluten.

It was only after Tomlinson paid £2 500 (R43 821)for a private full-body scan that she was told she had kidney cancer. The disease spread to her lungs and brain and she died last week with her family at her bedside.

Shocking

Her father, John Tomlinson, 66, said: “The doctors said to give cutting out bread a try, that it could be a food intolerance. But the problem was, it went on. It is so shocking she went to her GP that many times. There just didn’t seem to be any urgency with it.

“Claire was promised scans months down the line but her condition had got worse. More scans would save the NHS money in the long term and could help a lot of people earlier ‘rather than be fobbed off with “cut out bread’.”

Tomlinson first visited her GP at Hammersmith Surgery in West London in September last year. The doctor diagnosed a food intolerance, but despite repeated visits to her surgery, by Christmas the pain had spread to her back.

A spokesman for NHS England, speaking on behalf of Tomlinson’s GP surgery, said: “We cannot comment on the details of individual cases but we are always keen to understand any issues and concerns raised by patients’ family and friends.” – Daily Mail