What doctors dismissed as dietary anemia due to the teen's desire of wanting to be stick thin turned out to be an aggressive form of cancer.
As reported by Telegraph, it's a tragic story that was made even worse by GPs who didn't pay more attention to the symptoms-this is the current sentiment of Joanne Morrison, 51, mother of Georgia, 18, who died of stomach cancer.
A bright student, Georgia was a part-time worker in a department of Northern General Hospital in Sheffield. She was also about to take English literature in college. Her mother also shared that she wasn't the typical teen who dieted as she loved to eat, although she was still healthy.
On May 2014, she started feeling ill while keeping herself busy for the A-level test. At first, she was feeling lethargic. She was also having swollen eyes every time she woke up. Later, she no longer could hold down her food. It got so serious that Georgia was already asking her mother what she could eat that she didn't have to vomit.
Georgia and her mother started visiting doctors, but for more than 3 months, they'd been told that she had anemia due to a strict diet. Once, she was given tablets to boost her iron. None of these helped as she continued losing weight and feeling weak.
Getting tired from all the dismissive attitude of the doctors and worried at how her daughter just started wasting away, she brought Georgia to A&E and threatened not to leave until she was provided with a proper diagnosis.
Upon a more thorough exam, she had cancer in her ovaries and eyes. She also developed meningitis. By September, she received an official diagnosis: stomach cancer.
By then, however, the cancer was already very aggressive, and treatments became too late. In less than 2 months, she died.
Today, Joanne is sending a message to GPs to never ignore symptoms especially of teens, immediately dismissing them as something else as they seem to be very young to develop serious diseases such as cancer.
