Payout for cancer blunder mother's family

THE family of a young mother who died after doctors failed to diagnose her cancer have secured a six-figure pay-out from the NHS.

Lavinia Bletchly, 23, a mother of two, was sent home from hospital three times before she died of the aggressive cancer.

A High Court judge approved an out-of-court settlement with Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, part of which will compensate her two daughters Shaila, now nine, and six-year-old Chloe.

Ms Bletchly, of Bridgend, south Wales, died in 2005 from peritonitis and malignant non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A full-time textile design student at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, she fell ill in May 2004, months after Chloe's birth, and started a series of checks.

On one occasion her family said a senior consultant told her it was "all in her head". In March 2005, a CT scan and further surgery found that an extensive malignant tumour had encased her bowel.