Grandmother who saw GP twice a week for SIX MONTHS with stomach pain was told not to worry... then dies of bowel cancer just weeks later

A grandmother died from bowel cancer after being repeatedly told she only had constipation, her daughter revealed today.
Widow Maddy Pratt-Hooson, 66, went to her local GP surgery twice a week for six months complaining of severe abdominal pains.
But each time she was told not to worry and sent back home to her bungalow in Newhaven, East Sussex where she lived alone.

Mrs Pratt-Hooson, a mother-of-three, was eventually rushed to hospital in the middle of the night after calling her daughter Laura Hooson in agony.
It was another ten days before she was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which had started in the colon - and less than four weeks later she died from a massive tumour.
Laura, 24, said: 'She was failed by the NHS in every aspect - doctors, hospital, everything.
'She saw various doctors at her local surgery for six months but no-one properly examined her at all.
'She even saw out of hours doctors at the hospital but they all kept telling her she had constipation.
'One night she rang me in the middle of the night, crying her eyes out, and we got an ambulance to her and she ended up in hospital.
'That was on October 1st but it wasn't until the 11th - another 10 days - before she was diagnosed with colon cancer.
'By then we were told that nothing could be done for her apart from keeping her comfortable.
'She came home for a couple of weeks but her final days were spent in a hospice as she went downhill fast and she passed away on November 5th.
'She suffered unnecessary pain and distress for the last seven months of her life due to NHS negligence and I think the public should be informed.'
A prolonged unexplained period of constipation can be a symptom of bowel cancer.
Mother-of-one Laura, from Brighton, East Sussex, said she had tried to sue the NHS on her mother's behalf but was told she was not allowed because she was over 18.
She is now consulting solicitors to see what other options she has.

BOWEL CANCER - WHO'S AT RISK AND WHEN TO SEE THE GP

Bowel cancer is sometimes called colon cancer or rectal cancer depending on where it starts.

Symptoms include blood in your stools, an unexplained change in your bowel habits like prolonged diarrhoea or constipation and unexplained weight loss.

It is the third most common cancer in the UK with around 41,000 new cases in 2009.

Around three quarters of cases develop in the over-65s. Those with a close relative who had the disease are at much greater risk.

People are at higher risk if they eat a diet high in saturated fat and low in fibre.

Obesity, lack of exercise, a high alcohol intake and smoking can also increase the risk.

Currently everyone aged 60 to 69 can be screened by sending a tiny stool sample in the post. This will soon be extended to the age of 75.

Within the next few years everyone will also be offered a camera examination of their lower bowel at the age of 55.

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