Hampshire cancer patient from Penwood missing out on chemotherapy because of coronavirus

Nancy Carter-Bradley is told her treatment will have to go on hold ‘due to COVID-19’

A PENWOOD mother is feeling the effects of COVID-19 in a way that many people may not have thought possible.

Nancy Carter-Bradley, 44, has stage three brain cancer and last week was told that she may not be able to continue with her course of chemotherapy because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The mother of two, whose children went to Woolton Hill Junior School and The Clere, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005.

Son Toby is now a soldier in the 1 Rifles and daughter Freya, who is currently at home in isolation with her parents, is a third year medical student at Cardiff University.

For the last 14 years Mrs Carter Bradley has been in remission until autumn last year, when she was told the cancer had returned.

As a result, she was immediately put on a course of chemotherapy for a year.

Just five months into the treatment, she was given the news by her oncologist at Charing Cross Hospital, London, on Thursday that her chemotherapy would have to stop.

Mrs Carter-Bradley, who has an Instagram account documenting her journey – @avocadofairy – posted a video to her 8,000 plus followers, after receiving the news, in which she says: “I had a very difficult meeting with my oncologist who’s basically had to put my chemotherapy for cancer on hold due to COVID-19.

“The hospital is at full capacity already and for the foreseeable future the beds will be used for ventilated patients and all doctors are having to go and do frontline duties.

“Obviously having my chemo stopped – paused, whatever – is absolutely terrifying, but I am not alone… “

She said she has been contacted by 100s of people in the same predicament and she has created an Instagram hashtag #stayathometosavechemopatients, which since it went up on Thursday has already attracted posts from around the world.

At the end of the video, Mrs Carter-Bradley goes on to plead to people to take heed and follow Government guidelines to practice social distancing.

“If you’re out – if you’re not following the guidelines – you’re very likely to transmit this and make people ill and fill up the hospitals and then people like me can’t have my treatment.”

She may have to wait a further three months before the chemotherapy is resumed because no-one will be available to run the clinics, so she is currently looking for some other way of receiving the treatment she needs.

Mrs Carter-Bradley said: “The consequences of people not listening and not practicing social distancing are far-reaching. Please, please stop and think about what you’re doing.

“You only have to look at what’s going on in mainland Europe to see what could happen here in the next few weeks and as I know first-hand it’s not only people who get the virus that will be affected and could die.”