A BRADFORD grandmother says she has “lost faith in the system” following a series of delays to remove a brain tumour after a shock diagnosis last year. 

June Oakley, 57, said she was told her case would be treated as a priority, but has been left “disgusted” by the delays. 

She even got as far as a surgeon drawing a mark on her head to indicate where the incision would go, only to be told there was no bed available and she was to go home. 

June, a care assistant from Great Horton, was diagnosed with a meningioma brain tumour in December 2020. It came after months of going back and forth to the doctors to try to get to the bottom of her painful headaches.

Eventually, June was told she had been booked in for a CT scan, but says there was a delay as the doctor had forgotten to tell the receptionist. After two CT scans and two MRI scans, she was eventually invited to meet a neurosurgeon at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and told she had a low-grade meningioma, which was very large and couldn’t be left untreated. 

She: “Unfortunately, at 4cm, it was too big to be eligible for gamma knife treatment, so he said surgery would be the best option. I agreed and he said I would be treated as a priority and should expect the operation to take place towards the end of February 2021.”

On January 15, June went to Wharfedale Hospital in Otley for a pre-op assessment. However, in mid-March she received a phone call to tell her that the date of her surgery would be April 15 and that she would need to go back for another pre-assessment on April 10.

She said: “When I arrived at LGI on April 15, they said I was second on the list and should expect to be going into theatre around noon. I spent the morning preparing for my operation and had even got as far as the surgeon drawing a line on my head, to indicate where the incisions would be made, when, to my huge dismay, just after midday, I was told there was no bed was available and that I was to go home. It was a massive blow.”

June, who works as a care assistant for a severely disabled man in his home, added: “On top of that, having been told all the significant risks of the surgery, I’d really worked myself up, only to suddenly be told the operation wasn’t going ahead as planned.

“I went home, expecting to hear from the surgeon about my rescheduled craniotomy but after two weeks, I’d still not heard anything. I emailed the surgeon’s secretary to see if they had a date, and she said it looked like it was going to be June 10, but that I would receive written confirmation in the post. 

“That written confirmation never arrived but I eventually got an email, to say that the surgery was once again delayed until June 24.”

Then on June 22, June went to LGI to take a mandatory pre-op Covid test. While there, she got a call asking her to go for a CT scan and also had some bloods taken,

She said: “Then, to my absolute horror, I got a call from the surgeon’s secretary to tell me that my operation had been cancelled, again.”

June has been turned down for benefits and she says she can’t afford to live without her wages.

She says her life has been “completely put on hold” and added: “I’ve lost faith in the system and I’m finding it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Brain Tumour Research have highlighted June’s story and described it as “very concerning”.

Hugh Adams, from the charity, said: “We know that many brain tumour patients have been affected by disruption to their treatment since the beginning of the pandemic and we cannot stand back and allow this to happen.”

Dr Phil Wood, Chief Medical Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are very sorry that Mrs Oakley has had such a poor experience. We remain committed to getting her operation done as quickly and safely as possible, and on the two occasions that the operation was cancelled, it was either unsafe to, or were unable to continue. We are extremely sorry for that.

 “The health and welfare of our patients is important to us and our clinicians are extremely saddened when they are unable to deliver the care that’s needed. 

“This is in part due to how incredibly busy our services currently are, and we are busier now than at any point during the pandemic. 

“Mrs Oakley has been relisted for surgery and we hope to have her on her way to better health as soon as possible.”