Why did our daughter have to die? Family’s anguish after cancer death of mum misdiagnosed by medic with two years’ training

A young woman who died earlier this year from aggressive breast cancer was misdiagnosed by a junior doctor (PA), The Mail on Sunday has learned.

Colleen Howe, who was 34 at the time and eight months pregnant with her second child, thought she was seeing a doctor at her GP practice in Suffolk after discovering a lump in her right breast in August 2021.

But the Bury St Edmunds businesswoman was in fact examined by a PA – an NHS worker who, after two years of training, was allowed to assist doctors and nurses with their daily duties – who assured her it was simply ‘a blocked milk duct’.

She was told to take paracetamol and return if the lump worsened or persisted after delivery. Two months later, she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and told the tumors had spread to her liver, pelvis and spine. She passed away in April this year.

The tragedy, first revealed today in the MoS Health section, comes amid growing concerns that PAs are operating far beyond their authority: treating patients without supervision, performing risky procedures and bending the rules to illegally write prescriptions .

A doctor with a patient (stock image)

The government plans to employ thousands more PAs over the next decade in a bid to fill serious NHS staff shortages, but more than 2,800 doctors overwhelmingly claim the move will put patient safety at risk .

Earlier this month, they also raised “serious concerns” about the lack of regulation for PAs in an open letter to the General Medical Council.

Following Colleen’s death, an NHS investigation concluded that the advice she received from the PA was in line with official guidance.

However, the study also reported that GPs at the practice said it would have been ‘common’ to schedule a follow-up examination within two weeks for a pregnant woman with a breast lump – which did not happen.

“We didn’t even know what a PA was before all this happened,” says Colleen’s mother, Catherine, 60. “You just go along with what you’re told, and Colleen thought she had gotten advice from a doctor.

‘We are told that the PA who saw Colleen is devastated by what happened, but she is not as devastated as we are. We feel so angry – we keep asking ourselves, “Why did this happen to our daughter?” ‘

Dr. Matt Kneale, co-chair of Doctors’ Association UK – a company that represents NHS doctors – said: ‘There is an urgent need for clear guidance and proper supervision of PAs if we are to protect patients from harm. We call for an immediate pause in their recruitment until the regulations are in place.”