Ex-nurse dies after series of NHS 'let downs' left her trapped in flat with no care package

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A retired nurse whose cancer spread and became incurable because she waited so long for treatment has died still waiting for a care package.

Nearing the end of her life and struggling with advanced stages of cancer - now in her brain and several other organs - Helen Storrie, 71, was left without care.

It even took five weeks to get her the medical help she needed at home. Helen Storrie had known for some time that she was “living on borrowed time”.From the decision to treat cancer to that treatment beginning should take no more than 31 days.But Helen, 71, from Motherwell, was kept waiting for five months until May 2023 to begin treatment for stage four cancer.Great-granny Helen, a nurse for 40 years, believed her cancer worsened because of the delay in chemotherapy treatment starting.Shortly before her death on Friday she said: “I had 25 letters in the five months I waited, cancelling appointments or changing them.

These delays cannot have helped my chances.”While Helen kept reasonably well for about a year after the treatment began, the cancer spread with a vengeance and she was told more chemotherapy would be futile.From being reasonably active Helen could barely do more than shuffle around her fourteenth storey flat, clutching the walls and doors for support, as she took the short few steps from her bedroom to living room or bathroom.From a spot of cancer in her lung, it metastasised to her bladder and inoperable lesions on her brain.She said: “The consultant came to see me and said a possible option was to put me on chemotherapy and radiotherapy but she said it woud be a complete waste of resources and that they would rather spend the money on someone who could improve with the treatment.”Get the latest news sent