Following the story in last week’s Manx Independent we were contacted by one woman who was screened and given the all clear by the radiologist at the centre of the current scare.

She was subsequently diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and she told us about her experience.

In June 2015, a few months before her 50th birthday, Linda (not her real name) experienced some tenderness and swelling in her left breast. Her GP sent her for a mammogram and ultrasound scan. These were examined by the radiologist at the centre of the current screening scare and Linda was given the all clear.

In early November 2017, she was called for a routine screening mammogram, following which an urgent recall appointment was made and further investigations were carried out by a new radiologist, Dr Rebecca Miller, who is still in post at Noble’s.

Linda was shocked when Dr Miller said to her: ’That’s grown in two and a half years.’

She was referring to a cancerous growth in the breast that had previously been given the all-clear.

By this time, however, it had become much more serious as a subsequent biopsy revealed that it was a high grade ductal carcinoma and too large for a lumpectomy.

The following month Dr Miller told Linda that she had sent her medical records to England for an independent report that would confirm her opinion that Linda’s cancer had been missed first time around.

On January 23 this year Linda underwent surgery to remove her left breast and lymph nodes which had also been found to be cancerous.

The operation also involved taking muscle from her back to augment the tissue which had been removed and she returned home with a special dressing with ’a drain and a massive bottle’ while she healed. She had to return to Liverpool weekly to have the dressing changed.

’I couldn’t move my left arm properly so I couldn’t do anything. My partner had to wash and dress me and I couldn’t drive,’ she recalls.

All this time, Linda says she had ’no support whatsoever’ from hospital management in the island.

She said: ’My partner and I were trying to get our heads around the fact that not only did I have breast cancer but that they had missed it. But I had no contact from anybody - nothing.’

Furthermore, she still hadn’t heard the results of the independent radiologist’s assessment that Dr Miller had requested.

’The months went by and we were wondering why we hadn’t heard anything,’ she says.

Whenever she rang the hospital she was told that no one at the hospital had received it. At the beginning of April Linda finally got in touch with the radiologist in the UK herself.

She told Linda that her results had been sent back to Noble’s ’months ago’.

She added that she had also requested an opinion from another radiologist at Guy’s Hospital so that there should be no doubt.

Linda has finally been given part of the correspondence by the hospital. But as she has only been given half of the original email sent to the hospital - which does not include any date or the name of the person it was sent to - she still doesn’t understand how it ’went missing’ for so long.

As things stand right now, Linda’s breast is still not completely healed and she has a 10-inch scar on her back. She has not been able to work since December and as her work is very physical she doesn’t think she will be able to return to her previous job.

But her prognosis is good. The cancer hadn’t spread and she doesn’t need to have radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

She had a meeting with the hospital on April 19 at which bosses gave her a full apology.

Now all Linda wants is a reasonable settlement from the hospital. She is not looking for anything like the amount she might be able to claim.

She says: ’I just want to draw a line now and put it behind me - I don’t want this to define me.’

However hospital management is not currently willing to settle and, despite having already had the opinion of the two independent radiologists, they want Linda to undergo further examinations.

Linda has no quarrel with the breast unit who she says have been ’brilliant’ but she is understandably sceptical about claims by the department that it will fully support any woman who has been caught up in the current screening scare.

She says: ’I read the article in the newspaper last week and it said there was going to be a helpline to help you, and support for women - where was mine? There was nothing to help me at all. I had to cope with this by myself.’