Charlotte Simpson and Isabel McEgan did not know each other, but they shared a love of spending time with their friends, their families and their dogs, as well as an ambition to become teachers.
Sadly, however, what teenagers also share is the shocking way their GPs let them down by failing to detect that they had the symptoms of a deadly cancer. It is a situation that is becoming all too common.
Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed the gruesome story of 17-year-old Ruby Fuller, whose blood cancer symptoms were overlooked seven times by six doctors, who either dismissed them as allergies or insisted she was “bad.” “. One even laughed at Ruby’s worried mother’s suggestion that it could be cancer, saying: “Not in a 17-year-old girl; she’s too young.”
Charlotte Simpson was 17 when she started having symptoms of bowel cancer, but when doctors ran tests, it had spread throughout her body.
In October 2019, Charlotte, from Hampshire, who was 17 and studying for her A levels, began experiencing constipation, diarrhea and stomach pain.
Despite repeated visits to the GP, he was told there was nothing to worry about. Even when she started losing weight and vomiting, they suggested she was simply exhausted. “If you were older, we would be very worried,” said his GP. “But you’re only 17.”
It was only when Charlotte saw blood in her stool three months later that she was sent for tests. Scans revealed advanced bowel cancer that had spread throughout his body.
Four months later, she died, with her mother Sarah, her father David, her younger brother Elliott and her boyfriend Scott at her side.
In 2018, Isabel McEgan, from Merseyside, had not long finished her A-levels exams when she began complaining of heart palpitations and heart palpitations at night.
Over the following months, after starting a philosophy course at the University of Liverpool, Isabel continued visiting her GP with new symptoms. They said she was just stressed. In February 2019, he lost feeling in his chin and was again told not to worry.
Doctors dismissed Isabel McEgan’s symptoms and said she was simply stressed.
But while on holiday in the US, his face swelled and a dentist in Pennsylvania thought a wisdom tooth might be to blame. However, as he was removing it, he noticed a tumor on his jaw.
Back in the UK, scans revealed Isabel had kidney cancer which had spread to her liver, adrenal glands, jaw, pelvis and spine. He died in May 2020, less than two weeks before Charlotte Simpson also passed away.
Recalling her daughter’s last words, Isabel’s mother Amanda, 53, said: “I said to Isabel, ‘I love you.’ She said, ‘I love you more.'” That was the last thing she said to me.
Disturbingly, Charlotte’s mother Sarah, 50, says she said goodbye to her daughter with exactly the same exchange.
While the families will never know for sure, they both wonder if an earlier diagnosis could have saved the girls. For this reason, Charlotte and Isabel’s parents have joined forces to raise awareness about the symptoms of cancer in children.
They are working with the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia Group (CCLG), who have created a poster, which they want to display in all GP surgeries, to inform patients, parents and doctors about the warning signs.
“Early diagnosis is vital,” says Ashley Ball-Gamble, CEO of CCLG. ‘And it could be as simple as accessing the right information at the right time.
“If we can put this sign in front of them, GPs should have the information they need to make referrals.”
Charlotte Simpson with her mother Sarah
Across the UK, the number of children and young people diagnosed with cancer has increased by more than 15 per cent since the 1990s, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Each year, around 3,755 children under 25 years of age are diagnosed with cancer, including 1,645 under 15 years of age.
However, NHS research published last year suggests opportunities for early diagnosis are being missed. It showed that in 41 per cent of cases where a child was diagnosed with cancer, their families had taken them to the GP at least three times with the same symptoms before being referred for tests.
Experts say one of the main reasons why GPs miss signs of cancer in children is that the symptoms differ from those seen in adults.
Campaigners say one solution is Jess’s Law: proposed new legislation that requires GPs to escalate a case for urgent review if a patient comes to the surgery three times complaining of the same symptoms. It is named after Jessica Brady, 27, from Hertfordshire, who died in 2020 after four GPs missed adenocarcinoma, a cancer of the mucus-producing glands that line the organs, 20 times.
Isabel enjoying a day at Disneyland
But the CCLG charity says it is also crucial to educate GPs about the signs of the disease.
It is for this reason that the CCLG has developed its poster of childhood cancer symptoms.
“It can be difficult for GPs to detect cases of childhood cancer because they rarely find them,” says Dr Sharna Shanmugavadivel, a pediatrician at Leicester Royal Infirmary. “Placing the poster in every office could help doctors and patients recognize that certain symptoms are key warning signs of cancer and should prompt further investigation or referral.”
In 2021, NHS regulator the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) gave its backing to the poster. However, at the time there was no commitment to fund distribution to GP surgeries.
Isabel’s mother Amanda believes the move would save lives, saying: “Many of Izzy’s symptoms should have been warning signs.
‘It would also help parents advocate for their children if they could point to the symptoms on a poster and simply say, “Look!”‘