A traumatised mother-of-two who failed to be diagnosed with a now-terminal cancer after visiting her GP 25 times over one year is calling for more to be done to ensure cancer is spotted earlier.

Kim Major, 48, from Ewell, visited her GP at the Fitznells Manor Surgery, in Chessington Road, Ewell, for a year complaining of constant headaches, lethargy, dizziness, coughing, chest and neck pain, but was told each time there was nothing to worry about.

Last October, she was told she had lung cancer which had spread to her brain and throughout her body and which was now terminal.

Speaking to the Epsom Guardian today, she said: "It was just a total lack of care. 

"I knew there was something not right, something really wrong, but no one listened to me. 

"I don’t know how long a piece of string is for my life."

This week, the NHS announced it would be trialling a scheme allowing patients to refer themselves to hospitals for tests if they believe they have symptoms which could signal cancer. 

The initiative would include patients being able to book diagnostic tests directly, by-passing the need to go to their GP with symptoms, and lower hospital referral thresholds for GPs.

Miss Major said she definitely supports such a move and added: "I would have referred myself at the beginning if it was available.  It could have made a difference."

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Fitznells Manor Surgery, in Chessington Road, Ewell

In November 2013, Miss Major started suffering with various symptoms and said she tried to make an appointment to see her GP but was instead given an appointment to see the practice nurse, who told her it was likely she just had a virus.

Her symptoms continued and she began to have eyesight problems.

At an opticians test in early 2014, she was advised to go back to her GP for a full health check, which she did - but no investigations were carried out.

Last June, she visited the GP surgery again with the same symptoms and abdominal pain.  A colonoscopy was performed for the latter, which came back normal. 

But in August, her optician told Miss Major her symptoms needed to be urgently reviewed by her GP and wrote a referral letter.

Miss Major said that, at this time, her doctor told her he had done all he could and she should go and see a psychiatrist. 

Her condition deteriorated and, in September, she was rushed to hospital after developing a cough and chest pains and was taken for an x-ray and blood tests.  These showed she had a mass on her right lung.

A month later, Miss Major - who has a son, Lewis, 13, and daughter Roxanne, 32 - was told she had lung cancer, a "growing, aggressive cancer" which had been there for months rather than years. 

She said: "The lung cancer had been left undiagnosed for so long it had spread to my lymph nodes and to my brain.

"My family and I are completely traumatized and I feel wholly let down by the NHS.

"I visited my GP on so many occasions complaining of various symptoms but I was told so many different things and it took them collectively over a year to diagnose my condition.

"I don’t know how long I have left but my condition is deteriorating and I'm worried for my son who will be left without his mum."

Miss Major, who worked as a customer adviser for Streetwise Couriers, said she is a smoker but the type of lung cancer she has is hereditary. 

She is due to start radiotherapy shortly and said doctors have not been able to tell her exactly how long she has left to live.

But the single mother, who has borderline personality disorder, said she has "to fight" for her children.

"I have said to my son ‘of course I have to fight, but you have to understand at some point the medicine might give up on mummy’.

"I don’t want it to happen to another family or person.  I’m very ill.  These are people’s lives.  My family has been turned upside down."

Miss Major has launched a claim of medical negligence against the GP surgery.

She said that, since her diagnosis, she has received a letter from her doctor at the GP surgery "overly justifying himself".

A spokesman for Fitznells Manor Surgery said: "The practice was saddened to hear of this case, and our thoughts go out to the family at this difficult time.

"Due to its nature and our legal duty to uphold patient confidentiality, we are unable to comment further at this time other than to say we are looking into this matter appropriately and take all allegations extremely seriously.”

Richard Kayser, Miss Major’s lawyer at Irwin Mitchell solicitors, added: "Delays in promptly diagnosing and treating any type of cancer can have devastating consequences and it is vital doctors focus on the symptoms and give each patient the best possible care when deciding whether or not it might be cancer."

Have you had an experience in the NHS which you believe should be publicised?

Contact Hardeep Matharu by calling 020 8722 6346, by emailing hmatharu@london.newsquest.co.uk or get in touch on Twitter by tweeting @Hardeep_Matharu.