HEALTH SERVICE SPECIAL: Bangor mum faced 'agonising' wait for urgent cancer surgery
Donna Parkinson's operation was postponed amid the first lockdown
Last updated 8th Dec 2020
A County Down woman who faced an indefinite wait for urgent cancer surgery has told Downtown Radio & Cool FM of the "devastating psychological impact" it had on her life.
Donna Parkinson (53) from Bangor was rushed to hospital in March with severe abdominal pain and had an ovarian cyst removed.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and further surgery was scheduled.
But just a few days later it was postponed as staff were redeployed as part of surge planning for the first wave of the pandemic in Northern Ireland.
Donna spoke to us as part of a special series of interviews as we examine the wider impact of the Covid crisis.
She said: "You get a diagnosis of cancer and that's such a shock anyway.
"You think it's all going to be ok, we're going to go in next week, it's going to happen quickly, we're going to operate, everything will be taken away, you can deal with it because you know it's happening quickly.
"But when I was then told 'no sorry it's not happening, it could be three months it could be six months, we actually don't know at this point,' from then it was just a waiting game."
Some elective surgeries have had to be cancelled as pressures on hospitals increased, due to the influx of Covid patients.
Trusts apologised and tried to prioritise cancer surgeries wherever possible.
While they did endeavor to reschedule operations as soon as staff and resources became available, some patients were left waiting for a date.
The Health Minister Robin Swann acknowledged these challenges and said he was "extremely concerned" back in October.
Robin Swann urged all trusts to do all they could to book patients in as soon as possible.
Donna said the wider impact on her and her family was dreadful:
"It was awful, every waking minute you're just thinking when am I going to go in, is this spreading? If it has spread, what stage are we going to be at then, are they going to be able to operate, what treatment am I going to need?
"It was just incredibly scary, the whole thing is just not something that I would want other people to be going through."
Donna was in hospital just before the first lockdown.
We asked what it was like to be diagnosed with cancer in the midst of a pandemic:
"Even when I went in to be diagnosed, my husband couldn't come in with me so I went into the room on my own and then had to go out and tell him myself," she said.
"It's just not something that I would want other people to be going through and I completely get that Covid is rampant at the minute and there are so many hospital beds being taken up and ICU beds being taken up but it's so important that people are getting their diagnosis and their not having to wait for their surgery the way I did because it's just horrible.
"It's just so stressful, it has an awful psychological impact not just on the patient but on the family, the friends it's... it's just so hard."