A mother-of-two who struggled for weeks to see a doctor died of the "quickest killing cancer" after being found in agony outside Costa. Verna Jackson was discovered by her dad as she clung to a bench in agony in the village where she lived.
The 50-year-old's sister Yvonne Powell, 49, told how her sister had tried to get an appointment with a doctor but despite weeks of phone calls had been unsuccessful. But she said the "very quiet, just very reliable, dependable, honest" mum did not ask her family for help.
However the pain continued to worsen. The 50-year-old fundraiser from Formby finally got medical help after she was discovered by dad outside the coffee shop in April last year, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Mother-of-one, Yvonne, said: "My dad bumped into her in the village one day and she was in agony. He said, 'Right that's it', and just marched her into the doctors and said, 'We're making an appointment and we're not leaving until we've got one'."
Verna was initially treated for a stomach ulcer, but when the pain came back she was referred her to a specialist. However Yvonne said the hospital then lost her records.
Yvonne : "She was at my mum's and she was just crying in agony. My mum was on the phone to the GP and the GP said to take her up to A&E. It was the Easter weekend and they said they can't scan her because it's a bank holiday.
"She was in a lot of pain over the four days of the bank holiday weekend, she went back up to A&E, my mum took her, and they kept her in. That was when they actually scanned her."
A couple of day's later, Yvonne was celebrating her birthday with cake shared between her mum and daughter when they got a call from Verna in hospital. Yvonne said: "My sister had been communicating with my dad mainly, but she rang my mum and asked her to go up to the hospital.
"At that time, you weren't able to have visitors, there were still covid restrictions. We just knew, we knew there was going to be a cancer diagnosis. My mum was in hysterics."
In May last year, doctors diagnosed Verna with pancreatic cancer. This is the deadliest of the 20 most common cancers, killing roughly 9,000 people in the UK each year, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Verna was vomiting so much as she rapidly deteriorated, her parents couldn't care for her, so she moved into a hospice. Yvonne said: "That was it then, five weeks later she was gone."
She added: "The final time we went up, her daughter didn't want to go up because she was really upset the day before because her mum did look really ill the last few days. Her breathing was very laboured and we knew she wasn't going to make it through the day, so my mum called me dad and my dad shot up. My mum and dad were holding her hand and I was stroking her hair, and it literally was one last breath and she was gone."
The family was left with a "massive emptiness" when Verna died in June 2021. More than half of people with pancreatic cancer die within three months, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK, which described it as "an appalling statistic that has barely improved in 50 years".
Pancreatic cancer is the 10th most common cancer in the UK, with roughly 10,500 new cases diagnosed each year, according to Cancer Research UK. Like Verna, many are diagnosed in A&E and other emergency units, and just 7% survive five years or more after diagnosis.
This is because symptoms - like loss of appetite, weight loss, changes to stool and urine, tummy or back pain, indigestion and jaundice, according to the NHS - often don't appear until the cancer has grown. By that point, it's often too late to save the person's life.
Pancreatic Cancer UK fears this situation will become worse even than during the Covid-19 pandemic when tens of thousands of cancer diagnoses were missed. More than 80% of GPs fear winter pressures on the NHS will stop people with the condition from getting diagnosis and life-saving treatment, according to a poll of 1,000 carried out by Savanta ComRes for the charity.
This November, during Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, it launched a 'No Time to Wait' campaign calling on the government to urgently fund plans for pancreatic cancer to be diagnosed within 21 days, and for faster access to treatment and care.
Diana Jupp, the charity's CEO, said: "The message from health professionals is frighteningly clear - the pandemic, staff shortages and underfunding have all pushed the NHS to breaking point. Pancreatic cancer is the quickest killing cancer, and any delays to diagnosis and treatment could cost people their chance of survival. There is no time to wait.
"Governments across the UK must bring forward and implement funded cancer plans to deliver faster diagnosis and treatment that will save lives, not just this winter but well into the future. We cannot afford to continue lurching from one worsening crisis to another. People with pancreatic cancer, their loved ones, and hardworking NHS staff all deserve better."
To find out more about the 'No Time to Wait' campaign and sign the petition, click here.
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