Tragedy of mum, 27, whose cancer checks were axed

Illness spread even though she had all-clear

COVID curbs led to a mother of four not receiving check-ups after she was given the all-clear from cancer – only for the disease to return, this time with tragic consequences.

Lizzy Evans died aged only 27 surrounded by loved ones on March 31, less than a year after being told she the cancer was in remission.

A few weeks before her death she told how she was given the shock diagnosis of cervical cancer after unexplained bleeding developed while she was pregnant with her fourth child.

Doctors decided her daughter needed to be delivered eight weeks early so treatment could start immediately.

The tumour responded, and last May she was able to celebrate being given the all- clear at home in Bagillt, Flintshire. However, she said planned check-ups ‘didn’t happen’ due to pressures placed on the NHS by dealing with the pandemic.

A few months later she began to suffer chronic muscular pain all over her body. Doctors put it down to early menopause as a side-effect of the cancer treatment she’d already had, she said.

But when the pain got so bad that she had to call for an ambulance, further tests were carried out and she was given the devastating news that her cancer had returned. This time, however, it had spread to her lungs, spine and brain and was terminal.

She and her 29- year- old partner, Joshua Evans, married at her mother’s house and she hoped to be able to start taking part in a clinical trial at Christie Hospital in Manchester.

Tragically, she was told she was too poorly to be eligible for the trial and she died on March 31. Well-wishers are now raising money to help her children who are aged nine, eight, two and one.

The tragedy comes as campaigners warn of a cancer time bomb as a result

Lizzy Evans: Repeatedly sent home and told to take painkillers of the NHS being engulfed by coronavirus patients. An incredible 44,000 fewer patients started treatment last year and there were 4.4million fewer life- saving diagnostic tests.

Mrs Evans said the first sign that things were amiss was when she started bleeding during her pregnancy.

‘I was back and forth to the hospital and when they checked my cervix, they said it looked abnormal,’ she said.

‘I ended up having a biopsy, which resulted in me being diagnosed with cervical cancer.’

After her daughter was delivered by caesarean section she began treatment and was finally given the all- clear on May 6 last year.

She said was told she would be monitored with regular check-ups – but said these ‘didn’t happen’ because of the coronavirus pandemic.

‘I went to my GP with back, shoulder, rib and neck pain, which radiated throughout my body, and the GP put it down to muscular skeletal pain due to me going through the menopause because of the previous treatment. I was sent home with pain relief and told to come back if it didn’t work.

‘I started to also have unbearable stomach pain and went to the hospital as they thought I had a twisted ovary, but when they discovered it wasn’t that, I was sent home with more painkillers.

‘I had to get paramedics to come to my home as the pain in my shoulder, neck, and ribs got worse – they also said the same thing, muscular skeletal pain, and told me to ring the GP for more pain relief, which also didn’t work.

‘Until one morning, I was in that much pain I had to phone an ambulance

‘I was struggling to breathe’

because I felt like I was struggling to breathe.’ She was taken to hospital where a chest X-ray revealed fluid on her lung, and she was sent for further tests and a biopsy. On January 20 she was told her cancer had spread to her lung and it was now terminal.

‘To find out I had cancer in the first place was a massive shock and after I got the all clear, we thought we could move on with our lives and get back to normal, then this was just the worst,’ she said. With no treatment available apart from pain relief, she focused on planning her wedding and funeral as well as making memories for her children.

‘Lizzy was so strong and so brave,’ her mother Chrissy Davies said. ‘She was such a fighter and always believed in hope, all the way up until her last few weeks. ‘Life isn’t fair, it’s been so cruel to Lizzy. She was only 27 with her whole life ahead of her.’