Covid delay for a cancer scan left my hubby to die
A WIDOW whose husband died of cancer after waiting more than two months for a MRI scan says she lost the ‘love of her life’ because of delays in NHS treatment during the pandemic.
LaTroya Hall said Sherwin Hall, 27, begged for a scan when he first went to hospital with leg pain on March 23.
The father-of-two, from Leeds, was misdiagnosed and had to make 13 hospital visits before he got a scan on May 26. It revealed a 6in malignant tumour in his pelvis and 30 tumours on his lungs. He died earlier this month.
Now, Ms Hall has joined the Catch Up With Cancer Campaign, calling on the government to boost cancer services ‘devastated’ by the Covid-19 crisis.
‘If Sherwin’s cancer had been found earlier it is likely he would still be here today,’ she said. ‘He would want me to do everything I can to prevent other families suffering as we have.’ Cancer charity Macmillan says the backlog of cancer patients from the first lockdown is 50,000 – a figure that could have doubled after the second lockdown.
For every four-week delay in treatment the survival rate falls by between six and 13 per cent, studies show.
Campaign co-founder Prof Pat Price said: ‘We need to super-boost cancer services or we risk losing as many as 35,000 patients needlessly.’
The Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘We’ve given £3billion to support the NHS in tackling Covid, including £1billion for extra checks, scans and operations.’