More help before cancer diagnosis

Yvonne Mitchell (Sainsbury). Born 21.06.35 - Died 12.07.13.

This is a shortened story to what happened to my mum in the seven months she went through cancer.

My mum was diagnosed in January this year (2013) with Malignant Neoplasm in the face and neck. (Abnormalities of Breathing & sore throat). She went to her doctor's with a sore throat, twice, couldn't see her own GP until she went a third time. Then he sent her for an urgent CT and MRI scan. The results were devistating to her and all of us as her family, she was given 6-9 months and had a 20% chance (It was a very agressive cancer). She had to have a tracky fitted, she couldn't swallow food and eventually even water, she couldn't speak either. She then went into hospital which was horrendous, the staff were not equiped to handel cancer patience's. Mum eventually came home, which was the place she chose where she would like to die, not in a hospital bed. Then she had to start her 5 day chemo at the Royal Marsden, the first and second time she was just tired. Mum had a scan which sshowed slight reduction so she decided to go in for the third time she went in she had a chest infection and bronchile which didn't even come up in the blood test she had to have before she could be admitted on the friday. On the monday she collapsed, it took the staff an hour to get her up, when I went in to see her it broke my heart to see her in such pain and having a sore and bloody mouth from the after effects of the chemo. The Royal Marsden prognosis was (case note T4N3) MO poorly differntiated squamous cell carcinoma, left laterial phayngeal wall with bilateral cervical lymph node involvement. After decided she didn't want to carry on any more, her decision, we, as a family helped and nursed her, along with St Christopher's nurses, (who were fantastic), to give her, her wish to come home to die, but of course the lump got bigger and bigger, eventually dragging the left hand side of her face down and it got so painful mum had to start morphine. Everything included liquid food when through a stomach tube. It was the saddest thing we had ever had to do for this lovely, warm, funny person. Dad was there for her all the time and at 88 it was very tiring, but we would take it in turns to stay over, had a bell fixed up in the bedroom for mum to press when she needed us, which would eventually be all times of the night. One night when my brother was staying the hole tracky came out and mum was rushed to Royal Princess hospital in Kent. They managed to get in back in but needed a specailist to perform the operation. It was then told to us by the consultant the mum really would need to go into a hospice, she was taken into care by St Christopher's, then taking over a ward in Lewisham hospital. Fantastic people, can't praise them enough for the wonderful work they do day in day out. Mum would communication with a slight wisper or hand signals, which were quite graphic sometimes, but never at the nurses which she had a repore. When it got near to her passing she was on morphine on constant flow, my sister and I decided to stay over so the nurses put up some recliner chair beds for us so we could be near mum. She was loved by the doctors and nurses at St Christopher's and they treated her with dignity. She died peacefully and will leave a void.

As a family we are left shocked and heart broken that if she was sent for a scan earlier, there may have been a chance for her.

My petition is about getting more help for people who believe they have cancer and to have facilities to see a doctor or go to hospital and get more help prior diagnosis before it gets to the stage where it's too late.

Love you always mum x