‘I would rather be poor’: man says money cannot compensate for partner’s death after failed cancer diagnosis

“I remember the doctor, after he’d examined Helen and found a large lump in her colon, saying: ‘It’s very sinister – we need to bring you in to be investigated.’”

Darren Rosheski is recalling the moment a consultant doctor at Tameside hospital broke the news to his partner, Helen Dutton, that her symptoms – which also included back pain, passing blood and altered bowel habits – were so worrying that they needed further tests.

“I lost her because nobody listened to her. It came down to the GP not listening to her. They should have investigated her when she first saw the GP. Passing blood is a serious thing, isn’t it?”

The family doctor who Dutton saw then, back in late 2016, judged that her symptoms were signs of irritable bowel syndrome and haemorrhoids. The GP did not recommend any further action.

It proved a serious misjudgment. Dutton, a 35-year-old finance manager and mother of one, already had bowel cancer. However, it went undetected until she went back to her GP surgery two years later, saw a different doctor and was referred to Tameside hospital in Greater Manchester. In January 2019 she had a physical examination, CT and MRI scans and finally a colonoscopy, which confirmed the presence of a cancer that had already begun to spread.

Three weeks later doctors at Manchester’s Christie cancer hospital told Dutton she had advanced rectal cancer, a type of bowel cancer, that was already at stage 4. She had all three main types of cancer treatment: chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. In June 2020, she was given the all-clear. But her cancer returned just two months later and she died aged 40 a year later, in August 2021.

The GP’s failure to refer Dutton for tests when she first presented with her symptoms proved disastrous for her chances of survival – and also very costly for the NHS. Rosheski, a tradesman, hired Irwin Mitchell solicitors to sue the NHS over the errors in his partner’s care. He reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum in January. 

“I would rather be poor and have Helen still around. A family has been destroyed by a doctor’s negligence. I don’t care about the compensation. I just wish she was here now,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 23 July 2026