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A desperate father has spoken of his anguish over delays in his daughter’s cancer treatment, amid fears that the Covid crisis could leave 100,000 cancer cases undiagnosed.
Ian Johnson was told that his five-year-old daughter Scarlett Coleman had lymphoma earlier this year.
He, Scarlett and the family have been through “hell” after their CT scan was delayed four months when the coronavirus crippled the NHS, with no new date confirmed.
It comes as Macmillan Cancer Support estimates that 50,000 people have undiagnosed tumors and this may double by October 2021 without returning to normal.
The charity also says 150,000 patients have had treatments delayed or canceled, like Scarlett.
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Tesco’s distribution center worker Ian, 38, said: “They keep canceling us… they tell us it’s in process.
“She screams her tummy and her butt hurts. I hope the cancer hasn’t spread to her stomach, but we won’t know until the CT scan.
“I heard her cry and say ‘Mom, help me’, but there was nothing we could do. It is affecting us all mentally and emotionally. “
His mother, Melanie Coleman, 37, added: “It kills me to have been by his bedside during all the procedures.”
Scarlett developed the disease as a side effect of a heart transplant when she was five months old.
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The delay in treatment is not believed to be fatal for the young woman, who lives in Middlesbrough with her mom, dad, sisters Kacey and Leah, and brother Lucas.
Analysis of data released by the NHS up to September suggests that 33,000 UK adults should have started cancer treatment but have not.
NHS England said the Macmillan findings were “flawed” and further data from September and October will show that services are on the mend.
But the charity’s report, called The Forgotten C, says that even in the best of cases, it would take 18 months to remove the delay in England and three years in Wales.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust yesterday became the latest to announce the cancellation of some cancer operations.
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Medical Director Keith Girling said the trust made the “extremely difficult decision” to delay four this week. He said, “This delay, however brief, will be incredibly difficult for patients and their families, and I am so sorry.”
Macmillan Director Lynda Thomas said: “Cancer care is at a crossroads and services cannot be closed this winter.
“Due to the pandemic, we estimate that 50,000 more people are missing a diagnosis. It is unacceptable that they face unbearable delays that could affect their chances of survival.
A spokesman for England’s NHS said of the Macmillan study: “These assumptions are wrong because, thanks to the hard work of NHS staff, cancer treatments have actually returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“If you have worrisome symptoms, you should check it out.”
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Yesterday there were another 310 deaths related to Covid-19. The death toll stands at 45,675.
The day before, 367 deaths were reported, which was the highest number since late May.
Hospitals in some parts of the country, including Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham, are now treating more Covid patients than at the peak of the first wave, the NHS in England said. In Leeds, health officials said only essential operations will take place in the city.
Adding to the sadness, a major study estimates that there are now 96,000 new daily coronavirus infections in the UK, with the outbreak doubling in size every nine days.
Random tests of 85,000 volunteers in England from October 16 to 25 showed 128 infected people for every 10,000 of the population.
This was an increase of 60 per 10,000 in the latest round of the government-commissioned React study.
Data, compiled by Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI, suggest that the national R-value has risen to 1.6 after a brief decline.
The largest increases in infection were seen in the 55-64 age group.
Professor Paul Elliott, who led the study, said: “There was a period when the rate of increase was slowing down.
“But what we see this time is an increase in the rate of increase and not just a high prevalence in the north, increasing rapidly in the south.”
It follows reports that Sage advisers, including Sir Patrick Vallance, have told ministers to expect deaths to reach 500 a day by the end of November. They are pushing for tighter closures and warn that 25,000 people could be in hospital with Covid-19 next month.
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