Why did our daughter have to die? Family’s anguish after cancer death of mum misdiagnosed by medic with two years’ training

A young woman who died earlier this year from aggressive breast cancer was misdiagnosed by a physician associate (PA), The Mail on Sunday has learned.

Colleen Howe, who was 34 years old and eight-months pregnant with her second child at the time, believed she was seeing a doctor at her GP practice in Suffolk after discovering a lump in her right breast in August 2021.

But the businesswoman, from Bury St Edmunds, was in fact examined by a PA – an NHS staff member allowed to assist doctors and nurses in their daily duties after two years of training – who reassured her it was simply ‘a blocked milk duct’.

Told to take paracetamol and return if the lump worsened or persisted after giving birth, two months later she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and told that tumours had spread to her liver, pelvis and spine. She died in April this year.

The tragedy, revealed for the first time today in the MoS Health section, comes amid increasing concern that PAs are operating far beyond their remit – seeing patients without supervision, performing risky procedures and bending the rules to illegally write prescriptions.

But the businesswoman, from Bury St Edmunds, was in fact examined by a PA – an NHS staff member allowed to assist doctors and nurses in their daily duties after two years of training – who reassured her it was simply ‘a blocked milk duct’. Pictured: Stock image

The Government plans to enlist thousands more PAs over the next decade in a bid to plug dire NHS staff shortages, but more than 2,800 doctors overwhelmingly argue the move puts patient safety at risk.

Earlier this month, they also expressed ‘grave concerns’ about the lack of regulation governing PAs in an open letter to the General Medical Council.

Following the death of Colleen, an NHS investigation concluded that the advice she was given by the PA was in line with official guidance.

However, the review also reported that GPs at the surgery said ‘usual practice’ would have been to schedule a follow-up within two weeks for a pregnant woman with a breast lump – which did not materialise.

‘We didn’t even know what a PA was before this all happened,’ says Colleen’s mother, Catherine, 60. ‘You just go along with what you’re told, and Colleen thought she’d been given advice by a doctor.

‘We’ve been told the PA who saw Colleen is devastated by what happened, but she’s not as devastated as we are. We feel so angry – we keep asking ourselves, “Why did this happen to our daughter?” ’

Dr Matt Kneale, co-chairman of Doctors’ Association UK – a firm that represents NHS doctors – said: ‘There is a pressing need for clear guidelines and proper supervision of PAs if we want to protect patients from danger. We’re calling for an immediate pause on their recruitment until regulations are in place.’