'She'll be in a coma for four days after her operation to tackle cancer'
We've been hearing from a York family affected by cancer, as concerns are raised nationally about a backlog of patients.
There are concerns people in York living with cancer may have had their treatment affected by the pandemic.
It's as NHS Providers has warned this week that a 'huge' backlog of patient care - caused by Covid - could take 5 years to clear.
The organisation, which represents every NHS hospital, and mental health, community and ambulance service in England, said tackling the problem in the worst affected areas could take three to five years.
According to recent data from NHS England, 4.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February - the highest figure since records began in August 2007.
The number waiting more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment was 387,885 - the highest for any calendar month since December 2007.
In February last year, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks was 1,613.
NHS Providers has called for a "bold transformative approach" with additional funding from the Government to clear the backlog in a reasonable period of time.
Jake Freeman is from York - his wife Nicole was diagnosed with a form of oral cancer four days after giving birth to their daughter: "The pandemic has made family life quite difficult.
"My wife lost her father - who adopted her - to cancer last year. We weren't able to go to the funeral and Nicole couldn't visit to say her farewells. When Nicole gave birth to our daughter we weren't able to visit her very much - just two hours per day (she was in hospital for four days).
"She has mental health problems, so she was really struggling and just needed our support during the pandemic. It was also upsetting for our five year old because she wasn't able to see her mum at all.
"On the last day that Nicole was in hospital, she had some ulcers on her tongue checked out; it then turned out that it was oral cancer.
"In the hospital she's going to have a feeding tube as she can't eat properly, and has lost a lot of weight. She'll also have a breathing tube in for a few days. She might need nurses to check on her daily when she comes out of hospital.
"After she gets home, she'll be given up to six weeks at home - before going to Leeds for radiotherapy. Most likely, it's going to be an ambulance that will take her to Leeds. It'll be every day for six weeks, and it's going to start when the schools finish for Summer.
"We probably won't see much of that Summer, so we're trying to keep everything as calm and fun as possible for the kids.
"The pandemic hasn't really delayed any of the operations for us. The hospital have been very professional, and they've given Nicole all of the tests that they've needed to do. Within three weeks of knowing that she's got cancer they've been able to operate, which is very good.
"The treatment consists of an operation which can last up to eighteen hours, and will mean removing the ulcer from her tongue. During this, they also have to remove her lymph nodes and glands.
"She'll be in a coma for up to four days after the operation so that it's a bigger chance for her to recovery. She also has the early onset of Multiple Sclerosis, and is wheelchair bound permanently".
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "Our NHS has faced significant challenges over the past year and we continue to support our incredible health and care staff who have kept services open this winter for thousands of patients.
"We are backing our NHS with an extra £7 billion for health and care services this year, bringing our total additional Covid-19 investment to £92 billion.
"This includes £1 billion to support NHS recovery by tackling waiting lists and providing up to one million extra checks, scans and additional operations."