NHS let-down

JoSIe CUNNINghAM appeared on This Morning on TV the other day, talking about the breast enlargement surgery she had a few years ago, funded on the NhS, paid for by British taxpayers.

This is disgraceful in itself — and this is why I’m so hurt. A few years ago, a friend noticed something wasn’t right with my body, but being overweight I thought the lumps on my abdomen below my breasts were because I was ‘fat’.

My friend persuaded me to go to the doctor, who confirmed that although they aren’t harmful, they should be removed. We decided I would lose weight and I set about shedding all I could in the hope that the lumps would disappear.

I was put on fat remover tablets and ended up at the doctor’s numerous times because I was making myself sick. I was also put on anti- depressants for anxiety and depression.

But the more weight I lost, the more prominent my abnormalities became. Finally, my doctor referred me to the NhS for help to get rid of both the lumps and a lot of excess skin owing to my weight loss.

I saw a lovely man called Mark Pickford, who agreed I needed surgery and said he would like to help me but that the NhS wouldn’t help someone like me.

Someone like me? Someone who has never claimed a penny in her life? Someone who would never dream of abusing the system? Who pays national insurance and tax? Someone who genuinely needed the help?

I was distraught. My mum couldn’t believe I wasn’t eligible for help and scraped together all she could to allow me to have the much-needed surgery privately. She doesn’t have a lot of money and this has used most of what she has from working hard and paying tax all her life.

So to say Josie Cunningham’s smug face on TV bragging about her help on the NhS left me distraught is an under-statement. Why couldn’t I be helped? Two surgeons and a gP agreed I needed help, but I got none. how is that fair?

LAUREN CASEY, address supplied.