Mum’s admission: ‘Doctors made me feel like a paranoid parent – but my baby had cancer’

Writing for the Huffington Post, Jess explained that her two-year-old son Luke had been telling her that it hurt when he went to the toilet.

Her GP dismissed it as thrush or an infection, sending her home with antibiotics for her little boy.

When Luke peed out a lump, she took him bcd to the doctors, only to be told that the situation wasn’t serious enough to warrant further investigation.

She explained: “It got to the point to where he couldn't empty his bladder, and was straining until he was red in the face, veins popping out of his neck and screaming in agony on and off all day and all night.

“But at A&E the doctors we saw seemed really dismissive and acted like we were wasting their time. They thought it was constipation and they questioned his diet.

“Then they said it was a urine infection, and gave us more antibiotics. I didn't feel listened to.”

Around that time, Jess saw a government campaign on television, warning people about the dangers of spotting blood in their poo or pee - and she began to suspect that her little boy might have cancer.

Doctors continued to dismiss her fears, even going so far as to imply that Luke’s discomfort was his mother’s fault for not ‘caring for him properly’.

It was the last straw.

Jess refused to leave A&E without a follow-up appointment - and doctors finally booked in an ultrasound.

“During the ultrasound even we could see the absolutely enormous cancerous tumour on the screen, which had been growing in Luke's bladder the whole time,” she wrote.

Thankfully, despite the late diagnosis and the horrific treatment process, Luke is now in remission and back to his bubbly self.

Jess credits CLIC Sargent http://www.clicsargent.org.uk/, a charity who offer help and support to children and young people going through cancer, for getting both her and her son through the gruelling process.

Now, for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, she is working with them to help raise awareness of childhood cancers - and investigate why the NHS are so delayed in diagnosing cancer in children and young people.

She said: “I think that if just one of the health professionals we saw had taken us more seriously or had specialist training that Luke's cancer could have been caught earlier.“

To read her full story, visit the Huffington Post now.

For more information about CLIC Sargent, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and its Better Care for Young Cancer patients campaign visit: www.clicsargent.org.uk