My mother was told her tumour was benign – five years later she died
A woman whose mother died five years after a cancer misdiagnosis is calling for second opinions on oncology scans to be made mandatory.
Louise Hickman, from Ipswich, was told in 2019 that a mass removed from her ovary was benign and that she would not require any further treatment.
But in 2022, the “kind and caring mother” was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after she returned to Ipswich Hospital with worsening symptoms.
Later tests confirmed her initial cyst found three years earlier had indeed been cancerous and in July 2024, she passed away, aged 47.
Her daughter, Chloe, said she believes her mother’s outcome may have been different if she was correctly diagnosed in 2019, and is now campaigning to make it mandatory to have oncology scans checked by two experts.
A report issued to Ms Hickman and her family by the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust following her mum’s death accepted that the 2019 cyst should have been “adequately sampled and referred for an expert opinion” at the time.
A clinical opinion included in the report also stated that the “missed diagnosis with delay in treatment caused significant harm”.
She has launched a petition calling for the government to implement “Louise’s Law”, which would make it mandatory that benign oncology scans are sent for a second expert opinion.
Source: The Independent, 19 March 2025
