High profile cancers

I've blogged before about the number of people I know (of) who have been diagnosed with cancer after months or even years of being told there was nothing wrong with them. Indeed, my own story is an example of this. Luckily, my persistence paid off, but that may be because, for various reasons, I have little faith in the medical profession and question everything. It doesn't make me popular with my GP - and, as I've said, we were practically on not-speaking terms by the time my diagnosis came through - but, sadly, it seems that it's now a case of those who are most vociferous are those who get the attention.

This comes to mind today after listening to a radio piece about TV reality show participant Jade Goody. It seems that even her degree of well-known-ness did not prevent her from being told there was nothing wrong with her for a couple of years, before being diagnosed with cancer that was much worse than it could - and should - have been, had someone listened sooner to what she was saying.

There is, it seems, a problem with diagnosis of cancer in the UK. Why is this? Why are so many people told that there's nothing wrong with them, only to find months later that they have a cancer that has advance well beyond where it would have been if someone had only taken them seriously? There are a lot of possible answers to that question, and I don't like any of them.