Cancer mum dies after lockdown delays her chemo
AYOUNG mother died of cancer after chemotherapy, which she believed had been working, was delayed at the beginning of the Covid lockdown.
Kelly Smith, 31, from Macclesfield, died from bowel cancer on June 13 after three and a half years of living with the disease.
Before she passed away the mother-of-one , whose funeral was last week, told how she felt angry after her treatment, which she says was having positive results, was paused for 12 weeks at the start of the lockdown.
The case of Kelly, who lived on New Hall Street, was featured in a BBC Panorama programme on Monday night.
She tells her friend, and reporter, Deborah James, that during the time of the delay she believes her cancer had progressed too far.
When asked if she would be in such a position if Covid had never happened Kelly said: “I don’t think I would be in such a position.”
She added: “I’m angry, yes, that I got put on this break, because I don’t think I should have.
“I’m angry at Covid because its me that had this six week break.
“It’s me that has been put in this situation.”
Asked by a medical expert if she is worried about the future and worried about dying, she said:
“Terrified. Absolutely terrified. I don’t want to die. I feel like I’ve so much more to do.”
Kelly was mum to sixyear-old son, Finn and her brave battle with cancer was featured in the Macclesfield Express.
She first started experiencing symptoms, including loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, bloating and diarrhoea, in December 2016.
After three months and numerous trips to the doctors a scan found a blockage in her bowel and tests revealed she had cancer.
Following an operation, in which Kelly had lymph nodes removed, she underwent chemotherapy.
Throughout the ordeal Kelly was determined to raise awareness of the disease in the under 50s and joined Bowel Cancer UK’s Never Too Young campaign.
While being treated Kelly shared her experiences as @kickasskell on Instagram.
She also made appearances to talk about how cancer can strike in people of all ages.
Her father, Craig, said his daughter had fought an ‘inspirational’ battle against cancer.
He said: “Kelly’s ethos from the moment she was diagnosed was to fight both the cancer and also to raise awareness that it is not only older people who get cancer.
“She did this on social media, magazines, radio, and TV, and continued to be active in promoting awareness until the very end.
“The family is dedicated to continuing Kelly’s cause in both raising awareness and fundraising.”
The Panorama programme showed footage from her funeral in which she had a pink, sparkly coffin.
Her family has now launched an appeal to raise money for Cancer Research UK in her name. More than £16,000 has already been raised.
Urgent referrals for cancer care have dropped and treatments have been delayed or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There is also a major backlog for screenings resulting in delayed diagnoses, the programme reveals.
Mark Lawler, professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast, and scientific lead of DATACAN, the UK’s health data research hub for cancer, said: “Initial data that we got was very worrying to us. Anecdotally, people have been telling us there were problems, but I think the critical thing was being able to actually have routine data from hospital trusts.
“We felt that, worst case scenario there would be 35,000 excess cancer deaths in the United Kingdom. (In the next year).
“Obviously scientists like to be right in terms of their analysis, but I hope I am wrong in relation to that.”
Peter Johnson, national clinical director for Cancer NHS England, has the job of drawing up guidelines on cancer treatment during Covid-19.
Asked if there would be excess deaths caused by Covid-19, he says: “It’s impossible to say. We’re working as fast as we can to put services back together again, to restore the capacity and indeed to build more, so that we can deal with the people that have not been diagnosed during the time when services have been running below 100 per cent.
“I am hoping that we will get back to where we need to be by the end of the year.”