Heartbreaking face of pandemic cancer delays
This graduate tried to see GP 20 times before getting a face-to-face appointment. When she finally got her diagnosis it was Stage 4 cancer. Four weeks later she was dead
‘We just wanted her to have a chance’
A CANCER victim who died at the age of 27 had to contact her GP 20 times before securing a face-to-face appointment, her mother told MPs yesterday.
Amid the growing row over virtual consultations, Andrea Brady said her daughter Jessica was repeatedly denied the chance to see a doctor at their surgery due to the risk of catching Covid.
The University of York graduate, who worked as a satellite engineer for Airbus, began suffering from pain in her back and stomach in June last year.
Doctors dismissed her symptoms as long Covid, although she had tested negative for the virus. Miss Brady was also warned against visiting a GP in person due to the risk of catching Covid.
Her condition gradually worsened and over the next three months she repeatedly begged to be seen by doctors at her local surgery. She was finally offered a face-to-face appointment in September.
She was reassured that she was young, with no history of serious ill health, and warned that there was ‘no way’ of knowing when she would get a referral to a specialist. Weeks later, in November, her mother became alarmed when large glands appeared on Miss Brady’s neck and decided to pay for her to be seen privately.
Days later she was diagnosed with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma – a rare type of cancer that starts in glandular cells, which had spread to her lungs, bones, spine and liver. She was immediately taken to hospital and died just under four weeks later on December 20.
Her family, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, are now campaigning for greater awareness of cancer symptoms in young people. Miss Brady’s mother has cautioned ministers that ‘dealing with the real risk of Covid should not create a higher risk of cancer death in our younger generations’.
The total number of patients who have seen a specialist for suspected cancer since the pandemic began is more than 230,000 lower than would be expected, analysis shows. Research from the charity Macmillan estimates the NHS in England would need to work at 110 per cent capacity for 17 months to catch up on missing cancer diagnoses, and for 13 months to clear the cancer treatment backlog.
Mrs Brady shared her family’s story at a meeting of the Commons health and social care committee yesterday. She believes that if her daughter had been older she would have been seen – and diagnosed – sooner.
‘I think it’s fair to say Jess was a very gentle, sweet person,’ she told MPs. ‘But she really did attribute her late diagnosis to the slow reactions of her GP surgery. In truth we just don’t know if she would still be alive today... but we just wanted her to have a chance of treatment. We feel really strongly that age should not be a discriminating factor.
‘If it had been [her father] Simon or me, or somebody older, perhaps the reactions would have been quicker. It’s not common in Jessica’s age group [but] statistical likelihood should not be a determining factor in deciding whether diagnostic testing should be done.’
She added that ‘nobody wanted to see Jess’ due to the pandemic, and has warned that ‘Covid-19 is undoubtedly exacerbating the situation’. She proposed that if someone approaches a GP practice more than three times with the same symptoms, the case should be elevated for review.
Mrs Brady also suggested that GPs should have a designated cancer specialist – and that frequent refresher courses are essential.
Miss Brady was eventually seen by four different doctors at her local surgery – another factor feared to have contributed to her late diagnosis.
‘I think patients need a named doctor, not just in principle but in practice... somebody that will follow through somebody’s care,’ her mother told MPs. ‘When I went with Jess to the permitted appointment, somebody who had known Jess would have known the toll the illness had upon her.
‘She had lost two stone in weight. She wasn’t a large girl even before that, so she was tiny.
‘If they’d known Jess, just by her pallor, gauging her exhaustion... it was another new doctor on this occasion so they wouldn’t have known.’
Mrs Brady said her daughter’s final days were spent on a Covid ward, as she was too ill to be moved to a hospice.
‘On the night Jessica died we were left alone pretty much all night with her,’ she told the Commons committee. ‘She was inadequately medicated. She was acutely aware of what was happening. Her last words to us were “I think I’m dying”. It was utterly tragic and traumatising.’