A university student died just 13 days after being diagnosed with bowel cancer as his family are furious at the "neglectful lack of care".
Ryan Brown, 23, had to break the news of his devastating diagnosis to his parents over FaceTime whilst they were on holiday.
His twin sister, Hope, was with him as he received the stage four-cancer diagnosis and has since said he should have been diagnosed much earlier.
Ryan had suffered from ulcerative colitis since the age of 12 and his family says he should have received more regular testing as those with the inflammatory condition are at an increased risk of developing cancer, The Daily Record reports.
Ryan was only weeks away from graduating from university when doctors found a 15x12cm mass in his bowel, with further evidence of the disease in his liver and lymph nodes, after vomiting faecal matter.
Hope is now speaking out to raise awareness of ulcerative colitis while branding Ryan’s lack of testing as “total neglect”.
She said: “We want answers. We want to know why Ryan wasn’t treated properly.
“Ryan called me on May 1 asking me to go to the hospital because they wanted a family member to come in.
"Our mum and dad were actually in Tenerife at the time so we had them on a FaceTime call.
"We thought it was to discuss surgery with him possibly getting a stoma bag.
“So I went in and they told us that Ryan had cancer."
Speaking about the moment they were given the devastating diagnosis, Holly recalled: "The surgeon that we spoke to totally downplayed it.
"He made out that it was just a wee bit of cancer, and he’d get some chemo and surgery to remove it.
"We didn’t think it sounded too serious.
Discussing Ryan's progress, Hope added: “By Monday, May 9, my mum seemed to have some sort of sixth sense and turned round to one of the nurses and said ‘Ryan’s too sick to get chemo isn’t he?’.
“She asked if they were ever planning on telling us.
"But basically, no one wanted to tell us because of his age and they didn’t want to upset us."
She added: "He passed at 1am on May 14 - 13 days after his diagnosis. He never even had a chance.
“I just feel like it shouldn’t have happened. I’m so annoyed about it.
"That’s my twin brother and I’ve lost him."
Ryan had suffered a painful flare-up in February last year, but was unable to get a face-to-face appointment due to the pandemic.
He continued to suffer from severe headaches and abdominal pain, which left him hunched over in agony, but was prescribed steroids with no additional testing.
His family claim that between February and April, he made 17 phone calls to specialist IBD nurses as he continued to try to get help.
Hope believes there were several missed opportunities to diagnose her brother - who made history as part of the first set of twins born to a liver transplant patient.
Hope explained: “They even tell you if you’ve had colitis for over ten years, the chance of you getting bowel cancer increases.
"So you would have thought they would be regularly testing to monitor and find out. It’s just so frustrating. It’s total neglect.”
Mum Carol Ann and dad Daryl are planning to submit a formal complaint to NHS Lanarkshire while sister Hope will collect his honours degree in electrical and electronic engineering on his behalf.
NHS guidelines state that patients with ulcerative colitis have a higher chance of developing bowel cancer - with the risk increasing over the years.
Sufferers should receive regular check-ups - colonoscopies - to look for signs of cancer from around 10 years after first developing symptoms.
The frequency of testing should increase the longer a patient lives with the condition - ranging from between one to five years - depending on other risk factors including a family history of cancer.
Russell Coulthard, Deputy Director of Acute Services, said: "Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family following the sad death of this young man.
"We would ask the family to get in touch with our patient affairs team at patientaffairs.corporate@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk to offer them the opportunity to discuss their concerns with us directly."
Hope is raising funds for Crohn's & Colitis UK in memory of her brother.
