Two years after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, a woman from Scotland was told that doctors had made a mistake – she did not have the disease whatsoever.
In November 2011, Denise Clark was told that she had terminal cervical cancer. She had previously overcome the same illness, but was advised the cancer had returned and this time was incurable.
The mother of two began to make arrangements for her death, planning her funeral and spending £10,000 on alternative therapy in the hope it would prolong her life. She wrote farewell letters and took her two boys – Harvey (10) and Luca (4) – on a summer holiday she thought would be her last.
“Absolute hell”
But after becoming suspicious about how well she felt, she insisted on having another scan. This revealed that she did not have cancer after all, but had instead suffered internal damage during her previous course of chemotherapy.
“Hearing them say it was a mistake was amazing and there is a future now”, she said. “But it doesn’t give me or my kids back the two years of our lives that were made absolute hell. I planned my funeral and wrote farewell notes to my boys.
“It was heart-breaking but I had to do it for my family. No one should have to do that if they don’t need to.”
Ms Clark said that she felt “let down” by NHS Grampian, adding: “It wasn’t just one department which got it wrong, it was multiple departments. They made mistakes time and time again.”
She has since settled a claim against the Trust, receiving a high five-figure sum in compensation.
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