Laura Morgan had more than 20 appointments but it wasn’t until she demanded to see another doctor that the devastating truth emerged
Laura in December, 2025, after her second round of treatment (Image: Laura Morgan)
A mum who claims her symptoms were dismissed by doctors for two years has now been diagnosed with stage four cancer. Laura Morgan, from the Neath area, said she had been back and forth to doctors “about 20 times” before she was diagnosed with a type of advanced lymphoma in July, 2025.
Prior to her diagnosis, Laura felt doctors did not examine her properly, misdiagnosed her with a chest infection, and even mixed up her medical notes with those of another patient on more than one occasion.
The 41-year-old said she was sharing her story as a cautionary tale to encourage people to be persistent if they felt dismissed by a health professional. She said: “Ask to speak to a different doctor, go to a different surgery, keep going.
“You know when something is wrong with your body. If you feel there is something wrong with your body and that doctor doesn’t listen to you, seek someone else’s advice.
“Always fight for your rights because if you don’t, you could end up dead.” Stay informed on everything Neath Port Talbot by signing up to our newsletter here
Laura encourages people to ‘keep going’ if they are worried about their health(Image: Supplied by Laura Morgan)
Laura explained that her nightmare began as far back as late 2022. She was pregnant and had developed a cough, although at this point she was not worried it might be anything sinister.
She told WalesOnline: “I had been down the doctors during my pregnancy about the cough. At the beginning we had some dampness in the house so we thought that was causing it.”
However, Laura said the cough did not go away and she developed more worrying symptoms. She claimed she went to see a doctor on a number of occasions but felt “palmed off”.
She said: “I kept going to the doctors saying I had this really bad cough, I felt really unwell and I had no energy. My legs hurt, my body hurt and I just felt different. I was sweating loads in the night and my cough wouldn’t go away.
“They told me I was sweating because I had just had a baby and that I had a cough because I just wasn’t well,” she claimed. She said she felt, “they were palming me off, but I know that I felt different.”
Laura said around this time she had an unrelated operation, following which she had an appointment and it claimed it became clear that her medical notes had been mixed up with those of a different patient.
Meanwhile, Laura said: “I kept going back because my legs weren’t working properly, I had lost loads of weight and the life had been sucked out of me. I had also lost a stone and a half.
“The doctor said it was because I had had an operation or because I had had a baby. I was saying it’s not because of those reasons.
“I said: ‘I understand what you are saying but these are things I’ve dealt with throughout my life, and these symptoms are not normal for me. You need to listen to me.’”
Laura with her family. L-R: Zane her oldest son, her partner Jamie, her youngest son vinnie, Laura, her eldest Jess and her partner Alfie. Her youngest daughter Thea is in the front(Image: Supplied by Laura Morgan)
Laura said she developed back pain and found lumps in her neck, and so she booked another doctor appointment as advised by the NHS when new lumps are found.
However, she felt her doctor did not examine her properly. Her notes were also mixed up with those of another patient yet again, she claimed.
She said: “I went back again because I had lumps in my neck and I had a really bad pain in my back that wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t a mild pain, it was a pain I couldn’t bear and nothing would take the pain away. I found the lumps in my neck when I was trying to massage the pain away.
“I could feel that these lumps were getting bigger and then more little lumps were coming.
“I had developed a big lump at the front of my neck and I was trying to explain [to the doctor] that I couldn’t breathe properly because of the back of my throat and cough.”
She claimed: “The doctor wouldn’t feel the lumps on my neck, he wouldn’t listen to my chest, but he said I have a chest infection.
“I said: ‘But I have lumps in my neck,’ and he said: ‘Yes, you have a chest infection.’ When I pointed to the lump in the front of my neck, which was easily visible, he said again that I just had an infection. He gave me antibiotics and so I went to the chemist.”
Symptoms of lymphoma according to the NHSSymptoms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma
The most common symptom of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a painless swelling in a lymph node, usually in the neck, armpit or groin.
But it’s highly unlikely you have non-Hodgkin lymphoma if you have swollen lymph nodes, as these glands often swell as a response to infection.
Some people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma also have other, more general symptoms.
These can include:
night sweatsunintentional weight lossa high temperature (fever)feelings of breathlessnesspersistent itching of the skin all over the bodySymptoms of Hodgkin lymphoma
Symptoms of Hodgkin lymphoma include:
a painless lump or swelling, usually in your neck, armpit or groin – this is the most common symptompain in the glands in your neck, armpit or groin when you drink alcohola high temperaturenight sweatsshortness of breathitchy skinsudden weight loss
At this point Laura said she was unable to obtain any prescription because of a mix up.
Following this she put in a formal complaint including with Llais, Wales’ independent citizen voice body for health and social care.
She claimed doctors had gone periods of time without responding to Llais.
Following that interaction, and with her symptoms continuing, Laura said she went back and demanded she be seen by a different doctor at a different location.
She said: “I spent literally two minutes in the room with this doctor. I told her I had a really bad cough and nightsweats and pointed once to the lump on my neck.
“Within minutes she said: ‘Something really bad is going on with you, we need to get you tested more.’ I then had scans and tests. I had a CT scan within a week.”
Laura wants to raise awareness of lymphoma(Image: Laura Morgan)
Laura said she found out her devastating results in the worst possible way, when another doctor phoned her in late July.
Laura said: “I was in Swansea with my children on our own. A doctor phoned me and asked where I was and I replied saying I was out with my children in Swansea.
“[The doctor] said: ‘Just so you know we think you may have a form of lymphoma, do you know what that is? Is there cancer in your family?’ I didn’t know how to take that in. I thought that was what appointments were for.
“I felt like my world was falling apart. I wanted to cry my eyes out and I couldn’t because I was with my kids.”
Further tests have since revealed that Laura’s lymphoma is at stage four, which means she has to undergo particularly intensive treatment.
She does not yet know her prognosis and is awaiting more scans to determine if her treatment is working.
She said the illness and treatment were having a profound impact on her and her family.
She said: “I’m not the person I used to be and I can’t do the things I used to. I have so much pain in my legs because of my bones and I get breathless.
“I’m worn out and in between that I have really bad insomnia so I can’t sleep.
“I shouldn’t have had to go through all this. I could have had a simple three months of treatment if they had listened to me.
“My four children wouldn’t have had to see me so unwell. It’s my children and family who are going through this as well.
“They shouldn’t have to worry at such a young age whether their mum is going to survive.”
Reflecting on her interactions with doctors, Laura said she felt gaslit and as though she was losing her mind.
She said: “It made me think I was making stuff up and I was attention seeking, or like I had Munchausen syndrome or something.
“I looked like death. You couldn’t look at me [at the time] and say there was nothing wrong with me because I looked like death.
“I think they dismissed me because they thought I was a nag and because my bloods came back normal (blood tests alone can’t always rule out cancer), but felt they wouldn’t listen to me as a patient.
“Sometimes I would question them, but sometimes I wouldn’t. I’m a really strong person and a number of times I came out of there and they had made me cry.”
A dementia carer herself, Laura added: “I would never treat a patient like this – not in a million years.”
Shortly after being off on maternity leave, Laura has had to leave work again while she undergoes treatment. Meanwhile, her husband has had to stop work to become her carer.
Laura’s friend Adele has set up a GoFundMe page to help reduce the financial pressure on the family, particularly over the Christmas period. You can support Laura and her family here.
Laura said: “[Adele] and my sister have been absolutely outstanding since I’ve been unwell.
“We grew up together and she’s been my best friend through my whole entire life.
“I don’t feel like I could live without her. She and my sister have been the greatest help in the whole world.
“She set it up just so we can pay the bills because my husband had to stop working to be my full time carer. We’ve never not worked before.
“We’ve always been a working family and never in a position where we have had to claim benefits.
“The last six or seven weeks have been a massive struggle.”
Laura provided consent to the doctors concerned to allow them to discuss her claims with WalesOnline.
A spokesman for them said they took “any concerns about the quality of care, staff conduct, and administrative processes in primary care extremely seriously.
“However, we are unable to comment or discuss any details due to a duty of patient confidentiality.
“Any complaints raised are investigated through the appropriate governance and complaints processes.”