Why was dying wife sent home 3 times?
Sky presenter’s cancer anguish as GPs fail to spot symptoms
‘Went downhill very rapidly’
SKY Sports host Simon Thomas has called for doctors to be better trained at spotting blood cancer after his wife was repeatedly sent home by a GP in the week before her sudden death.
The former Blue Peter presenter said his 40-year- old wife Gemma had made three trips to the doctor in just six days, but was turned away and told to ‘rest’.
Four days after the third appointment, the mother of one was dead – having been diagnosed in A&E with acute myeloid leukaemia, a rare form of the disease.
Mr Thomas, 44, is campaigning for GPs to be trained to detect blood cancer early, after doctors failed to recognise symptoms in his wife. He wrote on Twitter: ‘Three times my wife Gemma went to the doctor in six days and three times she was sent home and told to rest.
‘Four days after her final visit to her GP she was dead. We have to help and train our GPs and to detect blood cancer earlier.’
An all-parliamentary report released this week described the disease as the ‘ hidden cancer’ and found not enough is being done to combat it. The report recommended GPs immediately request a blood test for anyone with one or more symptoms.
Blood cancers – including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma – claim more lives in the UK each year than breast or prostate cancer.
Having failed to receive help at the GP surgery in November, Mrs Thomas visited A&E.
She was then diagnosed and transferred to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. Despite initially responding well to intense chemotherapy, her condition deteriorated rapidly.
On his blog, A Grief Shared, Mr Thomas wrote: ‘After complain- ing of headaches for three weeks, and having been to the doctor’s three times in the space of six days, Gemma went to A&E on the Monday night at the Royal Berks[hire Hospital].
‘Gemma suddenly went downhill very rapidly on the Thursday night. Just before 6pm on Fri- day 24th November she went to be with the Lord, aged just 40.’
On Christmas Eve Mr Thomas uploaded a picture on Instagram showing a letter to Santa from the couple’s eight-year-old son Ethan. The boy asked for Playmobil, Lego, and to have his ‘Mummy back’.
Mr Thomas wrote: ‘I just wish I could give him the third … I still can’t comprehend she’s gone.’
The couple married 12 years ago after meeting at a party held by their then boss in 2001. At the time, the pair worked for the UK- based Christian charity Oasis Trust. Mr Thomas said: ‘Our eyes met, and that was it.’
Mrs Thomas was very involved with her local church, and had launched a project to re-home a Syrian refugee family in their hometown of Reading. Since her death, well- wishers have donated £16,000 to the project. Nearly £14,000 has been raised in her name for Maggie’s Centres, which support cancer sufferers and their families.
Mr Thomas was a Blue Peter presenter from 1999 to 2005. He then took up a job at Sky Sports, where he presents live Premier League football.
The MPs’ report said diagnosing blood cancer can be ‘complex’. Henry Smith, chairman of the parliamentary group, said ‘general awareness among the public, health professionals and policymakers is very low’.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘GPs will base their decisions around what diagnostic testing is most appropriate on the symptoms … and the unique circumstances potentially affecting the patients.’