Great news as Government signals backing for cancer plan

It is all fine, but I waiting 2 weeks just to see the GP! and being away in another country they wanted to operate me ASAP!

I went to see my doctor as had lost weight I was 29 at the time had hives all over my back, sweating through the nights in middle of winter. Doctor sent me for blood test and told me I was suffering with stress lol any way my blood results came back I had something wrong but doctor still said it was due to stress, he sent me to skin specialist about my hives on my back. While was there I asked him about a lump on my neck luckly for me he sent me for an ultrasound the fine needle biopsy, then had to have it removed came back I had lymphoma other test showed hodgkins stage 3b grateful to still be here but gps should know more then they do, made me feel I cannot trust them

My daughter at just 24 went to the doctor in December 2014 with a lump in her breast doc said they would refer her to breast clinic has to go back 6 weeks later as no word from breast clinic phone breast clinic her self 10 days later was told that they have just received her refel did not get appointment till February 2015 it was for March. That day in March she was digenosed with inflammatory breast cancer stage 3. Now 6 month later she is now triple Negative Stage 4 feeling let down.

Where is the money for the hospitals etc, going to come from? I am still waiting after nearly three weeks, for the results of my breast cancer surgery, and have had no check up with the surgeon because the path labs can’t do my histology and get it to the MDT meeting! My local trust is facing a £40m deficit by the end of this financial year. They simply can’t cope with the workload!

The process needs to start much earlier with the GP consultation where there needs to be more in- depth knowledge of the symptoms and how they present.
In my case it took four visits to my GP seeing 2 doctors, each time I complained that I was suffering a bloated abdomen, pain when I bent down, loss of appetite. I was still doing body pump at the time (53 years old) and despite toned limbs and scrawny face, it looked like I’d been cultivating the mother or all beer guts. After being told it was IBS, wind, indigestion and following a blood test ‘we know it’s nothing nasty’ I was finally referred to a gastroenterologist (private sector) who also proclaimed me fit but as a last precaution prescribed a lower bowel scan. Thankfully the very senior radiologist who conducted the CT broke process to gently tell me I had NH Lymphoma with a 15cm tumour on the back of my plural cavity (behind the organs) .He did this to get me to the right consultant asap, a superb haematologist who saved my bacon.Chemo followed, reoccurrence after two years then an NHS autograft stem cell transplant (2011 was ‘scenic’ to say the least).
My GP was devastated (I wasn’t exactly over the moon myself) but I think he genuinely learned from the experience and featured my case at his practice conference with the learning ‘We need to listen more carefully to how patients describe how they feel’ . This may seem obvious but if I, an articulate hopefully intelligent patient, used to presenting in public was not understood or properly listened to, what hope for others? I stress that my GP has been exemplary in his care ever since.

All very lovely but if the drugs aren’t available to access what difference will it make to those with secondary cancer right now??

Well i had to wait two weeks for my biopsy results because there were not enough people to look at the results in the MDT. I was then called in to be told i had breast cancer and that i would need an MRI scan and told this would take a month before the appointment. When i protested after two weeks stating that i had hoped to have had an appointment date by now, i miraculously had an appointment made for the next day.
I then had to wait another two weeks before i got my first hospital appointment for surgery for the lymph node biopsy, then more waiting. In the end from being told i had breast cancer in the middle of June i had my mastectomy and reconstruction in the middle of August. So four weeks, that will be going some. More staff needed in the first place.

I think this is the news that a lot of cancer patients need.Mine was caught on x.ray after serious of chest infections.I was diagnozed as terminal.However I had 2wks of pavicall radiotherapy.When I was told results it did shrink a little .However getting to this diagnosis felt like forever as wks were passing by I trying to stay strong &optimistic but the worry you go through mentally is very challenging.I’m very happy to hear this for children & adult’s get tested a.s.a.p.Will government still be changing brnifits?

Four weeks? Seriously? I waited two weeks for the result of my biopsy and by that time I was a nervous wreck so the positive diagnosis was not a surprise but a confirmation. Try waiting weeks to know if you are a cancer patient and you will find out. I am in Canada but am so disappointed that England is worse……my home country……please make it faster….don’t keep women in this sort of suspense, .it’s agony.