Claire Tomlinson, 35, began to experience severe stomach pains about a year ago, but her doctors brushed it off. They suspected it was just a food allergy and advised her to “cut out bread” and other gluten-containing products.
Tomlinson listened, but her pain persisted and gradually spread to her back.
After two more months of watching their daughter suffer, Tomlinson’s parents insisted their daughter return to the hospital for another diagnosis.
That was when Tomlinson’s full body scan revealed that she had a tumor in her left kidney. She had been suffering from renal cell carcinoma for the past five months.
The doctors immediately put Tomlinson on chemotherapy treatment – but the disease only continued to spread until it entered her lungs and brain. Part of her lung collapsed from the disease, and Tomlinson had to undergo surgery to repair the organ.
At this point, the pain was “crippling,” but there was little more the doctors could do.
Tomlinson passed away from her kidney cancer after seven months.
Her parents, John and Gill, are requesting that their daughter’s funeral attendees donate money (rather than flowers) to build a garden at the school at which Claire served as a teacher.
They’re also speaking out about the treatment their daughter received.
Both admit to not being well-versed in science and medicine, but they believe “more urgent” treatment would have been more effective in decreasing their daughter’s suffering and prolonging her life.
John explained, “My wife just had a gut feeling that there was something wrong. She's not medical, she's just a good mother who knows her daughters inside out.
“Once you've alerted a doctor that something is wrong it's in their hands and you have to push and push to make sure that people act. You can't be frightened if there is something wrong, you have to do something about it because it's not just going to go away.”
