A CANCER victim has told how she faces a death sentence due to delays in her treatment caused by the Covid lockdown.
Ann Gibson, 67, has been given just months to live and is speaking out about her lockdown "nightmare" ahead of Sunday's five-year anniversary.
The lockdown was announced by Boris Johnson and then FM Nicola Sturgeon on March 23, 2020, amid rocketing deaths from the virus.
The move caused the NHS to grind to a halt as it dealt with an avalanche of coronavirus cases and the consequences of stay-at-home orders.
But for Ann, from Dumbarton, the lockdown caused major delays to her cancer diagnosis.
Those delays meant her cancer was not treated quickly enough and it has now spread so far throughout her body there is no hope of survival.
Ann said: "It was a bloody nightmare. I waited all that time and I have now been told five years later that my cancer had a rare mutation in it and I have a few months left to live.
"To say I am angry doesn't begin to sum up how I feel.
"It is all down to the original cancer not being treated quickly enough but now I have no future." Ann has been told that if her cancer had been caught promptly and treated immediately she could have made a full recovery.
Instead she lives every day in pain, knowing each day could be her last.
And she is not alone in her treatment delay. During lock- down, the Record told numerous stories of cancer patients whose treatment was held up. Many of them have since died.
Ann was one of several who came forward at the time to tell of her ordeal.
In July 2020, Ann received a letter from the NHS telling her she had a positive result to a bowel screening test but she was told because of Covid there would be a delay to her being seen.
She said: "They told me there was only a five per cent chance it was cancer. But it was cancer all along and when they eventually did find it, they said I had a very large and aggressive tumour.
It was only after the intervention of her MSP, Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie, that Ann finally received surgery to remove part of her colon - five months after she was suspected of having cancer.
She said: "I accept dealing with Covid was a serious issue but I was under the impression the NHS was started for everyone in Great Britain - but if it's a lottery, cancer patients picked the losing ticket."
Following her surgery in 2020, she received a call a month later telling her it had spread to her lymph nodes and...
Ann Gibson, 67, has been given just months to live and is speaking out about her lockdown "nightmare" ahead of Sunday's five-year anniversary.
The lockdown was announced by Boris Johnson and then FM Nicola Sturgeon on March 23, 2020, amid rocketing deaths from the virus.
The move caused the NHS to grind to a halt as it dealt with an avalanche of coronavirus cases and the consequences of stay-at-home orders.
But for Ann, from Dumbarton, the lockdown caused major delays to her cancer diagnosis.
Those delays meant her cancer was not treated quickly enough and it has now spread so far throughout her body there is no hope of survival.
Ann said: "It was a bloody nightmare. I waited all that time and I have now been told five years later that my cancer had a rare mutation in it and I have a few months left to live.
"To say I am angry doesn't begin to sum up how I feel.
"It is all down to the original cancer not being treated quickly enough but now I have no future." Ann has been told that if her cancer had been caught promptly and treated immediately she could have made a full recovery.
Instead she lives every day in pain, knowing each day could be her last.
And she is not alone in her treatment delay. During lock- down, the Record told numerous stories of cancer patients whose treatment was held up. Many of them have since died.
Ann was one of several who came forward at the time to tell of her ordeal.
In July 2020, Ann received a letter from the NHS telling her she had a positive result to a bowel screening test but she was told because of Covid there would be a delay to her being seen.
She said: "They told me there was only a five per cent chance it was cancer. But it was cancer all along and when they eventually did find it, they said I had a very large and aggressive tumour.
It was only after the intervention of her MSP, Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie, that Ann finally received surgery to remove part of her colon - five months after she was suspected of having cancer.
She said: "I accept dealing with Covid was a serious issue but I was under the impression the NHS was started for everyone in Great Britain - but if it's a lottery, cancer patients picked the losing ticket."
Following her surgery in 2020, she received a call a month later telling her it had spread to her lymph nodes and...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 21, 2025