This fight is for Shona Johnson who has terminal stage 4 gastric cancer. Shona is a 34-year-old newly married mum of 3 young beautiful children based in Reading, Berkshire. As I write this Shona now has only weeks left. There is a serious problem within the NHS system in how they are diagnosing and treating cancer patients. All the delays encountered by Shona has cut short her life. 

The problems encountered by Shona are:

• The GP’s lack of knowledge in this area brushed it off with general symptoms. Even though there is cancer on both sides of Shona's family. Just knowing there is a family history of cancer should have triggered to investigate further.
• Shona had difficulty getting a GP appointment never mind face to face which is causing more people to be misdiagnosed.
• NHS are limited to what treatments they can offer which is concerning. As there are other options but only available under private hospitals. Why are taxpayers paying for limited treatments and services.
• NHS avoided providing Shona liquid-form medication when they were aware she was no longer able to keep the medication down. Again, this could have helped Shona from getting so weak, frail, and dehydrated. Unfortunately, this is all about costs.
• Oncologists didn't make Shona aware of other treatments or trials available outside NHS which are suitable for her cancer type. 
• Royal Berkshire Hospital did not monitor her condition regularly as they should have which may have prolonged her life by providing nutritional support and immunotherapy she was left to deteriorate until she was no longer able to receive any further treatment or nutritional support.
• Shona and her husband attended an appointment with the oncologist in May 2023 to explain her deterioration and were told that she only had a few weeks left and no further treatment could be provided and when asked for nutritional support it was denied. Shona was not provided or directed to a dietitian to advise about how to help with her food intake or even advised about build-up drinks she had been left to wither away. When they confronted the oncologist about her lack of care and other issues his response was, he only worked part-time so was not aware. 

There have been so many errors in treating Shona and we know from other cancer patients she is not the only one. 

When are we going to stop making the excuse it was because of lockdown or because you can’t get a GP appointment. Or that the NHS is overwhelmed. There is a serious problem in treating cancer parents and a serious problem in detecting cancer early which can help to save so many lives. Statistics state there are 1 in 2 people who will get cancer so you would think this should be a priority for the government and NHS to work on a plan in improving the services to cancer patients

We are raising a petition called Shona’s Law: 

1. Improve GP services with how they diagnose patients who may have cancer by creating a new checklist and not assuming other illnesses but actually getting patients to have blood, scans, and fluids drained to detect cancer early. As having bloods and scans does not always find the cancer.

2. Provide automatic genetic testing to families who have had cancer and monitor family members yearly to prevent late diagnosis of cancer.

3. Full cancer screening for adults as we have bowel, breast, and cervical screening why not just a full cancer screening in general since cancer has become a pandemic.

4.  Doctors need to disclose all treatment options available outside the NHS. All cancer treatments outside NHS should be accessible to NHS cancer patients this shouldn’t be about money but saving lives. This will help cancer patients get the treatments they need and have the options available.

5. There needs to be a care plan booklet given to the cancer patient stating their diagnosis, treatments, appointments and contacts such as dietitians, palliative team, nurses, doctors etc. Cancer patients should be able to meet all the individuals who will be supporting them and understand what they can do for them and be made aware of the symptoms and issues they may encounter. This allows for proper monitoring.

Cancer patients are meant to be fighting cancer but unfortunately, they are having to fight for a diagnosis, fight for treatment, fight for medication, fight for care, and fight a system that is severely broken. This is an emotional, physical, and mental fight that no one can ever imagine. 

We are fundraising for Shona’s funeral and also to help support her husband and children since he gave up his job to care full time for Shona and the children. We do not want them to continue with more stress and financial issues whilst they are dealing with their loss. 

Here is the link to GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/shonas-cancer-journey