Mum-of-five diagnosed with terminal cancer after being 'sent home with a virus'

A mum-of-five was diagnosed with three incurable brain tumours after reportedly being sent home several times with a ‘viral infection’. Now, Claire Francis has days, if not months, to live.

The 38-year-old battled breast cancer following a mastectomy in 2021, ringing the end of treatment bell in July 2022 - but has now been told she has terminal cancer, Nottingham Live reports.

Claire first fell ill in February and went to A&E at Queen's Medical Centre and the NHS Walk-in Treatment Centre when she found herself struggling to breathe.

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She visited the medical centres several times over a period of four weeks, she says, but each time it was suspected she had a viral infection - and all her observations were okay. By March a senior professor admitted her to hospital.

Claire underwent several tests, each one leading to no answers. Days later she was given the all clear and told her cancer had not returned, and that she was a mystery.

But another consultant saw Claire, 38, of Carlton, and wanted to carry out a full body MRI scan. On the same day, April 6, Claire was taken into a side room and told they had found three brain tumours, which were incurable - and one was crushing the nerve to her vocal cord, the reason why she had lost her voice.

Claire was moved to the City Hospital, Nottingham, to begin treatment - where she was then told she also has lung cancer. After surgery to have a tracheostomy fitted to help her breathe, she told Nottinghamshire Live: "It should never have come to this. I went to hospital for four weeks with a viral infection and eventually they admitted me.

"They tried to tell me it was stress. I went to neurology for a second