THEY’VE LEFT A TIMEBOMB TICKING INSIDE ME
Sheila, 72, had her stage 3 cancer op cancelled at the last minute to make way for Covid cases. Her devastating verdict...
SHEILA Cashford has been left with a ‘ticking timebomb’ inside her after urgent bowel cancer sugery was cancelled because the hospital had a surge in Covid-19 admissions.
The 72-year-old, from Walderslade, Kent, was told she should have the life-saving operation within weeks of her stage three cancer being diagnosed last month.
But the grandmother, who was due to have surgery at Medway Hospital yesterday, was told in a phone call on New Year’s Day that it has been postponed indefinitely.
‘A nurse telephoned and said, “We are very sorry, we have had to take more Covid patients and we have had to cancel operations”,’ said a tearful Mrs Cashford.
The retired John Lewis retail assistant has already lost her father, sister and brother-inlaw to cancer and is now ‘petrified’ that the cancellation could mean she will suffer the same fate.
‘I’m constantly in tears and cannot sleep,’ she said. ‘We don’t know when I am going to have this operation because they don’t know themselves. If they don’t operate soon... it could go to stage four, that is the big worry. I feel like I’ve just been pushed to one side.
‘I know you’ve got to give these Covid patients treatment but what about me?
‘And I’m not the only one going through it as other operations have been cancelled. Every day counts for cancer patients and it’s a horrible, horrible situation – you can’t just leave people like this.’
Doctors advised the previously healthy Mrs Cashford, a mother of two, that with surgery the outcome for her cancer was positive. While stage three means it is large and has spread, it is still operable. But her family fear the delay could see it develop into stage four – often seen as terminal.
Mrs Cashford’s husband Paul, 74, to whom she has been married for more than 50 years, said: ‘I’m really worried. This cancer is a ticking timebomb inside her. The longer she waits, the less chance she has at surviving.’
The couple – who previously enjoyed cycling and going on cruises together – say they are willing to travel to any other hospital in the country for the operation but have been offered no alternative and can only wait for a call from the hospital.
They blamed those who break lockdown rules for the spike in cases.
Bed occupancy at critical care units in Kent on Friday was said to have reached 137 per cent, with some 20 severely ill patients having to be transferred to hospitals outside the county.
Mrs Cashford said those who ignored the guidance over Christmas were selfish, adding: ‘They are playing with our lives, it’s people like me who are going to suffer. I can’t blame the hospital or the nurses, I blame the people who have been going out and spreading this around.’
She was also critical of the delay in locking down the country after the surge in
cases. ‘The Government has not only let the NHS down they have let us all down. They should have acted as soon as this was in the country. It took too long to get proper testing, PPE and measures in place.’
Mr Cashford added: ‘It is the people who are ignoring the advice and are still going out or meeting up to have a good jolly.
‘The hospitals are at t breaking point and d something has to give – and it looks like it is the e poor cancer patients.’
Medway NHS Foundation - Trust confirmed d that Mrs Cashford’s surgery - and other – but not t all – cancer operations s had to be postponed.