A grandmother from Devon has been left seeking cancer treatment abroad after her tumour doubled in size while she waited three months for NHS care.
Diagnosis and delays
Marie Stibbe, 79, from Tiverton, began feeling unwell in February. After blood tests at Exeter Hospital, doctors initially suspected ovarian cancer, but in March revised the diagnosis to hepatocellular carcinoma, a common form of liver cancer.
Her daughter, Rachael, 44, from Canterbury, said that by the time immunotherapy began in June, the tumour had grown from 7cm to 15cm, and her mother's liver had become decompensated. The NHS standard is for treatment to start within 62 days of a cancer screening referral, but Marie waited 92 days between her scan on March 1 and treatment on June 1.
Family's concerns
Rachael sought a second opinion from a liver specialist at King's College Hospital, who recommended MRI and PET scans in April and suggested immunotherapy could provide years of benefit.
Rachael told The Mirror: "I was just so worried, because, we were in the middle of April and we knew she'd been diagnosed with this liver cancer on the 1st of March, and I was thinking 'what is going on here?'" She added: "We're quite proud of our NHS with cancer treatments, and we know when something's seriously wrong like that, the NHS is generally quite good."
After a more positive initial diagnosis, Rachael claimed the NHS refused further treatment for Marie, telling her she had six to 12 months to live and should "try and enjoy the life you've got left." Rachael said her mother was not given anything for pain and was told to take paracetamol, which "doesn't touch her pain."
Seeking treatment abroad
Feeling let down, the family ruled out clinics in Germany and pursued the Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine in Gurugram, India. The institute performed the country's first three-way liver transplant.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised £4,580 of its £16,000 target to cover travel, accommodation, and treatment costs. Marie has her visa and is ready to travel. Rachael said: "I'm just hoping for a miracle, but he has said that even if she can't have a transplant, he will start her on cancer treatment, so better than the NHS is going to do."
Marie, described as the "backbone" of the family and a gardening enthusiast, has a two-year-old grandson, Liam. Rachael said on the GoFundMe page: "My mother waited 40 years for a grandchild and she finally has Liam, a beautiful boy who is 2 years old and loves his grandma. Liam is now facing growing up without his grandmother."
A spokesperson for the Royal Devon University Healthcare Foundation Trust, which runs Exeter Hospital, said: "The concerns raised by Ms Stibbe are currently being investigated through our complaints process, and we have kept her informed of the status of those investigations. We will respond to her concerns directly when our investigations are completed."
