In February, Jolene Segrave, of Little Horton, was told she had the aggressive blood cancer classical Hodgkin lymphoma at the young age of 32.
She said it came after a couple of months of trying to gain an appointment at The Ridge Medical Centre.
Jolene claims she performed the surgery 200 times before upping sticks and registering her family with Bradford Student Health Services in December.
The Ridge Medical Center said they could neither confirm nor deny whether Jolene had ever been on their patient list due to their obligations around confidentiality – but pointed out that its complaints procedures were clearly displayed on its website and in its surgeries.
“It’s not something you expect to get when you’re 32,” she said.
“I would tell people that if you have any lumps make sure they are checked out straight away. You might even have to change your GP like I did.
“I moved my entire family out of there (The Ridge Medical Center).”
Jolene – who has children aged 10, five and one – started developing symptoms of the cancer back in October when she started to feel tired and intense itching all over her body with no rash.
This was coupled with weight loss and drenching night sweats. After consuming alcohol, the mum felt pain in her shoulder and arm.
“I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she added.
Once registered with Bradford Student Health Services, Jolene says she was promptly given an appointment and immediately referred under the Two Week Wait scheme.
With two visible lumps on her neck, she was sent to the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic at the BRI and then for an ultrasound-guided biopsy of the swollen nodes.
One month later, she received the devastating news.
“This type of cancer is very aggressive. There are six cycles of escalation,” Jolene said.
“I am okay but the chemotherapy (which she started in March) does make you quite tired.”
Since diagnosis, she has received a PET-Scan which showed her cancer was at stage 4 and located in her neck, armpit, abdomen and bone.
Jolene has been given an intense chemotherapy regimen with the aim to cure the cancer completely.
On losing her hair, she added: “I wanted to take control.
“One day I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up with hair all over the cushions.
“I knew theN it was time to cut it all off.”
Friend Charlotte Henderson has set up a gofundme page to help Jolene’s family through this difficult period.
It reads: “Jolene has embarked on an intensive chemotherapy regime and has three young children to care for.
“Please give anything you possibly can to help take some of the financial strain off her and her partner. Whatever makes her life that little bit easier.
“Please dig deep and share this around, she’s a lovely young woman and she deserves our love right now.”
A spokesperson from The Ridge Medical Practice said: “We are very sorry to hear that this lady has a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, that must be very upsetting for her and her family, and we hope that her treatment goes well and has positive outcomes for her.
“As we respect and take very seriously our obligations around confidentiality and information governance, we can neither confirm nor deny whether this lady has ever been on our patient list and we cannot respond specifically to the issues raised to us in this story by the Telegraph & Argus.
“We always encourage patients to let us know as soon as they are experiencing any problems with our services as most of the time we can help them straight away and advise on how to get the best from our practice every time they need us.
“Our complaint procedures are clearly displayed on our website and in our surgeries and include advice about getting help in being supported by an advocacy team to ensure that patients have equitable access to giving us feedback about our practice.
“We constantly keep access to our services under review and strive to find ways of improving this.”