Grandma 'given paracetamol' and told 'enjoy life you have left' after tumour grew during cancer treatment wait

Grandma 'given paracetamol' and told 'enjoy life you have left' after tumour grew during cancer treatment wait Marie Stibbe, 79, waited three months to begin treatment for liver cancer - exceeding the NHS standard of beginning 62 days - after what her daughter branded "shocking" treatment by doctors A beloved grandmother who was "sent home with paracetamol" after her cancerous tumour "doubled in size" is pursuing treatment in India as her daughter branded her treatment by doctors as "shocking." Marie Stibbe, 79, from Tiverton, in Devon, started to feel sick in February, and following blood tests, doctors at Exeter Hospital believed she had ovarian cancer. In March, doctors revised the diagnosis and said the retired secretary had hepatocellular carcinoma, one of the most common types of liver cancer. Her daughter Rachael, 44, from Canterbury, claimed by the time Marie's immunotherapy treatment started in June, the tumour had doubled in size from 7cm to 15cm and that her liver had become decompensated, which can cause severe health problems. The NHS has a 62-day standard where patients should start their treatment about two months following a referral from a cancer screening. The latest Care Quality Commission report update for outpatients in April 2019 said patients at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital "continued to wait too long for their treatment for cancer and remained at risk of deteriorating health because of the delay." It did, however, give the overall outpatient experience a rating of "good." In Marie's case, she underwent a scan on March 1 and began treatment on June 1 - 92 days later. Between waiting for Marie's treatment to begin, Rachael sought out the advice of a liver specialist. Rachael obtained the opinion of a liver surgeon based at King's College Hospital who in April recommended an MRI and PET scans to assess Marie's tumour. The recommendation also included immunotherapy and added the approach could buy time and could potentially lead her to have several years of benefit. "I was just so worried, because, we were in the middle of April and we knew she'd been diagnosed with this liver cancer on the 1st of March, and I was thinking 'what is going on here?'," Rachael told The Mirror. "We're quite proud of out NHS with cancer treatments, and we know when something's seriously wrong like that, the NHS is generally quite good. "I did have every faith in them that they would look after her. I could not have predicted that we would have this sort of question over whether it was ovarian cancer in February, and then in March they established it was liver cancer. I just thought they would get on and treat her." Following a more positive initial diagnosis, Rachael claimed the NHS refused further treatment for Marie. She said: "They just said to her, 'well, you've got six to 12 months and try and enjoy the life you've got left.'" "She wasn't given anything for her pain and was told to take paracetamol," Rachael continued. "Paracetamol doesn't touch her pain, it's just very poor care really. I'm not a doctor and I don't know what else she could have been given but I find it hard to believe that their answer was to take paracetamol." Rachael added she believed Exeter Hospital had failed her mum "at every level." Feeling distraught, the Stibbe family began pursuing options abroad and after ruling out clinics in Germany, have pursued the Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine in Gurugram, India. The team at Medanta was behind the first three-way liver transplant in the country where everyone involved got a compatible organ. The family has since launched a GoFundMe campaign - which can be viewed here - to cover expenses related to pursuing treatment in India and associated costs. Since being organised, the campaign has raised £4,580 out of a target of £16,000. Marie has her visa and is ready to make the journey for the treatment, though the family is prepared for costs associated with travel, accommodation and the treatment plan for the Stibbe matriarch. Rachel said: "I'm just hoping for a miracle, but he has said that even if she can't have a transplant, he will start her on cancer treatment, so better than the NHS is going to do. We keep saying to her, if you stay here, you are are going to die and this will be your last Christmas." But the family is determined to fight for gardening enthusiast Marie, who was fondly described as the "backbone" of the Stibbe family. "My mother waited 40 years for a grandchild and she finally has Liam, a beautiful boy who is 2 years old and loves his grandma," Rachael said on the GoFundMe page. "Liam is now facing growing up without his grandmother." A spokesperson for the Royal Devon University Healthcare Foundation Trust, which runs Exeter Hospital, told The Mirror: "The concerns raised by Ms Stibbe are currently being investigated through our complaints process, and we have kept her informed of the status of those investigations. We will respond to her concerns directly when our investigations are completed."