'My wife was dismissed as a hypochondriac and sent home from A&E - now she has cancer'

A mum-of-one who was sent home from A&E twice with excruciating back pain has now been diagnosed with blood cancer.

Laura Sims-Thickett was treated like a "hypochondriac" by hospital staff, her husbands claims. But the couple knew something was wrong and claim they couldn't get anyone to believe them.

Blood tests didn't pick anything up and Laura was sent home on two occasions with pain relief. Three weeks later, she was found to have broken three vertebra and whilst on the hospital ward, was diagnosed with the blood cancer myeloma.

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Her husband Paul hit out at his wife's delayed diagnosis. The 40-year-old from Staffordshire told StokeonTrentLive: "They just dismissed her as a hypochondriac with back pain.

"She knew something was wrong and she couldn’t get anyone to believe her. We couldn’t get across the seriousness of the pain she was in. Nobody listened to us."

The couple claim other issues have later included Laura being sent home without her chemotherapy tablets, developing a pressure sore at home, and missing out on stem cell treatment due to the pressure sore.

Laura's cancer levels increased further last Christmas. She also has cerebral palsy. Paul added: "I could agree with them that Covid had an effect on things but 12 months later the same things are going wrong - what's the excuse this time round?

"Every time we have to go up there’s always something. It’s never straightforward, whether it's missed prescriptions, late appointments, there’s always shortcomings along the line where people are not doing their job right.

"Those first 12 months hit her hard. She had never smoked, never taken drugs, and we don’t drink, and then to be