{"id":804499,"date":"2026-10-16T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804499\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:14:13","slug":"devon-woman-given-death-sentence-by-nhs-has-to-fly-to-india-for-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804499\/","title":{"rendered":"Devon woman given ‘death sentence’ by NHS has to fly to India for treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

She may now need to sell her home to pay for the life-saving procedure<\/p>\n

Neil Shaw Assistant Editor<\/p>\n

08:26, 16 Oct 2026Updated 08:59, 16 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Marie Stibbe<\/p>\n

A woman says she is having to take her mother to India for cancer treatment after the NHS<\/a> said there was nothing they could do and she only had months to live. Marie Stibbe, 79, visited her GP with ‘itching all over’ last December and was told to try taking antihistamines.<\/p>\n

A blood test later revealed she had diabetes, and markers potentially indicating ovarian cancer, so she was sent to Exeter Hospital\u2019s gynaecology department. A scan in February found out she actually had hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC, a type of liver cancer.<\/p>\n

She was referred to the hospital\u2019s hepatology department, where, daughter Rachael Stibbe says, Marie was told that she had just 12 months to live and that chemotherapy would only buy her a \u2018few weeks\u2019 of life. Rachael said: \u201cIt was just a complete shock, it came out of nowhere. The family were not expecting that off the back of \u2018I\u2019ve got some itchy skin, I\u2019ve got diabetes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A blood test revealed she had markers indicating cancer<\/p>\n

A scan at the beginning of March revealed Marie had a 7.5cm tumour, and her liver was scarred, but still functioning. B y April, Marie still hadn\u2019t had an appointment with her hospital\u2019s cancer team, so Rachael spoke to a liver expert at King\u2019s College, Professor Michael Heneghan, who told her to urgently contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service, or PALS, over concerns that the 62-day target for starting cancer treatment following referral had been missed.<\/p>\n

Rachael said: \u201cWe carried on waiting, and I carried on chasing, and we were just getting nowhere. We complained about the bloating, the water in her legs, and how bad it was getting \u2013 and we were told to go and see the GP for water tablets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, Rachael paid \u00a3700 for a private MRI scan from Nuffield Health \u2013 which showed her mother\u2019s tumour had grown to 14cm, and her liver was now no longer functioning properly. By July, doctors said there was nothing else they could do for Marie, and that she had just another six to 12 months to live.<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/p>\n

Marie with her family<\/p>\n

Rachael attempted to commission a \u00a32,500 scan on the advice of Professor Heneghan. But, Rachael says, NHS doctors were unwilling to fill in the required forms authorising the scan – s o she looked to India\u2019s healthcare system to save her mother\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

After finding doctors through The Medical Travel Company, a UK-based company which arranges for patients to go to India for treatment, Marie was immediately advised to get a scan. Marie was flown to New Delhi, India, at the beginning of August, and doctors said they could save her life.<\/p>\n

Doctors in India performed \u2018transarterial radioembolization\u2019, or TARE to treat the tumours, which they said had not spread outside of her liver. Rachael said India\u2019s health system \u201cputs ours to shame\u201d, and she is now preparing to fly over to India to see if she can donate part of her liver to her mum.<\/p>\n

Doctors have put the likelihood of a successful liver transplant, carried out by liver expert Dr Arvinder Singh Soin, at between 95 and 98 per cent. Rachael said: \u201cShe didn\u2019t really want to get on a plane, fly 5,000 miles away from her animals, her children, and her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she understands it\u2019s her only chance. She understands the NHS gave her a death sentence \u2013 it is that simple. Having come through her TARE treatment, it has been successful and she can have a transplant, she\u2019s a lot more positive now. She\u2019s been given a chance, and this was a chance that the NHS wouldn\u2019t give her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/p>\n

Marie at home, which she may need to sell to pay her medical bills<\/p>\n

However, the cost of the treatment is steep. Rachael has already taken out a \u00a320,000 loan just to pay for the \u00a316,000 TARE treatment, and the family has had to rely on assistance from a charity to pay for the \u00a325,000 transplant \u2013 with more costs expected.<\/p>\n

A fundraiser on the website GoFundMe<\/a> has already raised more than \u00a38,000 in donations. Marie\u2019s husband Alan, 79, says the couple may have to sell their 17th century Devon longhouse, where they keep ducks and chickens during their retirement, in order to pay the \u00a340,000 bill they expect to face at the end of Marie\u2019s treatment.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMy daughter\u2019s had to take out loans, she can\u2019t take out any more. I can\u2019t take out any more, I\u2019m retired. We\u2019ll just see what happens, but I think it\u2019s going to be the sale of the house, and that seems harsh. It\u2019s supposed to be from the cradle to the grave, there\u2019s nothing about it being from the cradle to India.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is, my wife will probably live \u2013 whatever her quality of life will be, at least we\u2019ll be together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/p>\n

Marie Stibbe<\/p>\n

Rachael has complained to the NHS about her mother\u2019s care, and requested they reimburse the cost of her private treatment. She added: \u201cThere are just so many people out there with liver cancer in the UK being told to go home and die, and I just wouldn\u2019t accept it. I don\u2019t trust the NHS, I really don\u2019t trust them. Not at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Rachael\u2019s complaint to the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust over her mother\u2019s care, the trust conducted a review of Marie\u2019s treatment.<\/p>\n

But in a letter sent in August by director of nursing Beverly Allingham, she says the review \u201chas not identified failures in care or significant delays attributable to the Trust\u201d \u2013 and blames Marie for the 62-day pathway being exceeded, due to the \u201cpostponement of appointments whilst a second opinion was sought.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said: \u201cThe concerns raised by Ms Stibbe were fully investigated through our complaints process, in line with Trust and national policy. We kept her informed throughout those investigations and have provided a comprehensive response to her concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She may now need to sell her home to pay for the life-saving procedure Neil Shaw Assistant Editor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[19348,102,2960,104,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-804499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-exeter","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804499","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=804499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}