{"id":154396,"date":"2025-09-23T02:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/154396\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T02:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:52:10","slug":"celebrity-cancer-diagnoses-fuelling-long-nhs-waiting-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/154396\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity cancer diagnoses \u2018fuelling long NHS waiting lists\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrities who publicly announce their cancer diagnoses are inadvertently contributing to lengthy NHS delays and waiting lists, a coroner has told NHS bosses. <\/p>\n

Samantha Goward, the senior coroner for Norfolk, said that public figures with platforms were \u201crightly encouraging\u201d people to \u201ccome forward with any symptoms of concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

But she noted that the public spotlight granted by announcements from the likes of the Princess of Wales and the King had led to increased demand upon the NHS after a surge in cancer referrals.<\/p>\n

The coroner made her comments at the inquest into the death of Michael Moore, who died from bladder cancer aged 83 after waiting nine months for a biopsy.<\/p>\n

Moore should have been tested within 28 days of his referral, the inquest was told. Goward noted that there had been a \u201cmissed opportunity to commence earlier treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sir Chris Hoy,<\/a> the cyclist, Gordon Ramsay, the chef, and Ronnie Wood<\/a>, the Rolling Stones guitarist, are other recent examples of high-profile individuals who have made public their cancer diagnoses. <\/p>\n

Ramsay urged the public to wear sun cream after announcing that he had undergone treatment to remove basal cell carcinoma<\/a>, a type of skin cancer.<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

The King was sent more than 7,000 cards after his cancer diagnosis was announced<\/p>\n

JONATHAN BRADY\/PA<\/p>\n

At the inquest hearing, Goward said that Moore was diagnosed with bladder cancer and was receiving check-ups before his death, having previously received treatment for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

During a check-up in 2023 an \u201cabnormal area\u201d was noted and a biopsy was requested. Nine months later, while still waiting for that procedure, he was admitted to hospital as an emergency case.<\/p>\n

A biopsy was taken that month and Moore was found to have an advanced and incurable bladder cancer.<\/p>\n

An oncologist advised that owing to Moore\u2019s frailty, active treatment was \u201cnot in his best interests\u201d. He was placed under palliative care and died at home. <\/p>\n

Goward said that there had been a delay in the biopsy being performed \u201cdue to lengthy waiting lists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Had Moore undergone a biopsy earlier, she said, \u201con the basis of the evidence heard I found that this would have identified the reoccurrence of the cancer at that time. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the balance of probabilities the cancer would have been at an earlier stage and there would have been more treatment options available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goward conceded that it was not possible to say definitively that earlier treatment \u201cwould have been curative\u201d, but she said it was \u201ca possibility and there was a missed opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her prevention of future deaths report, addressed to NHS England, the coroner raised concerns over an influx of referrals following the rise of celebrities publicly announcing a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

She said that in Moore\u2019s case, there was evidence from the hospital trust that while there had been initial improvement in waiting lists after a concerted effort to reduce them, there was \u201ca further decline, which I was told is in part due to an increase in referrals due to high-profile celebrities announcing their cancer diagnoses and rightly encouraging people to come forward with any symptoms of concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

The coroner added that she had been informed that a surge had been widely reported across the NHS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrities who publicly announce their cancer diagnoses are inadvertently contributing to lengthy NHS delays and waiting lists, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-154396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}