Tragic death of teenage girl who waited a year for a GP appointment – before learning she had cancer

A teenager who waited over a year to see her GP found she was riddled with cancer – and died just weeks after her diagnosis, her family say.

Amelia Ellerby, 19, had pleaded with doctors to take her concerns seriously after a lump the size of a 50p appeared on her lower back in February last year. But instead, her aunt Claire Hanshaw, 37, says doctors just gave her antibiotics – even though she made distress calls with her local practice every six weeks.

She later said Amelia was so worried she even called an ambulance, only to be told she would be “wasting her time” if she went to the hospital. Eventually the bubbly teenager was admitted to A&E – with scans revealing she had stage four cancer which had spread “throughout the entire upper half of her body”.

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Amelia died on June 12 this year, just weeks after doctors gave her the crushing news that her diagnosis was terminal. Claire, who had cared for Amelia since she was 15, said doctors ‘failed’ her niece after not taking her concerns seriously.

She said: “I feel like the doctors let Amelia down by not taking her seriously. I think there should be a lesson to be learned so other people don’t go through the same thing.

“It was devastating because even though she was my niece, she was like a daughter because she lived with me. We were very close. It was like losing a child. And it probably shouldn’t have happened. I don’t don’t think they took him seriously at all. I think if he had been picked up sooner it would have been different.

Claire, a team leader at Morrisons, of York, said Amelia first noticed the bump on her back when she started exercising around February last year. She said: “Amelia had started exercising, that’s how she ended up falling into it. She was just doing sit-ups one day, and just had her hand on her lower back and noticed it. You couldn’t see the bump, you could just feel it inside.

Claire claims the teenager tried to get an appointment with her practice – Priory Medical Center, York – but was just told she had been put on the waiting list for a scan. Claire said that when Amelia finally saw a GP in person, in March this year, the doctor discovered a mass measuring 10cm (4 inches) by 3cm (1 inch) in her lower back.

Claire said: ‘After going to the doctor, that’s when her pain started to get worse. So we thought it was because we were pushed and pushed. Then a few weeks later it got really big, and it was about the size of a hand sticking out of his back. It went from a small piece to being massive overnight.

“The pain got worse so we had to go to A&E to have it scanned, then she was referred to Leeds Hospital, and that’s where we confirmed the news.”

Doctors told Amelia she had stage 4 terminal cancer, with a diagnosis of metastatic soft tissue sarcoma on May 18 this year. Claire added: “Amelia was upset and angry. Obviously we started to think the news was going to be bad, but we didn’t really expect it to be as bad as it was.

“It wasn’t until she went to Leeds that they said it wasn’t just in her lungs and her back – it was in the whole upper half of her body, basically. No one deserves to die at this age. They haven’t lived their life, really.

Amelia’s GP surgery and NHS Vale of York CCG, which provides primary care in York, said they could not comment on individual cases. But a spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘Our sympathies go out to Amelia’s family at this terribly sad time.

“How appointments are assigned and prioritized for diagnostic procedures such as scans depends on the nature of the referral we receive, either from a GP or a clinician in the hospital. If a referral is made to investigate a potential cancer, then this is expedited and would be done quickly, usually within two weeks.

“We have continued to receive expedited referrals and maintain this service throughout the pandemic. Early detection and diagnosis of cancer is extremely important and we encourage anyone with concerns to contact their GP as soon as possible.

“We also encourage Amelia’s family to contact us if they have any questions about the care she received.”

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