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Mark and Michelle Sneddon are petitioning the Scottish government for an overhaul in treatment for pediatric cancer patients
Their daughter, Isla, died at age 17, two years after her chest pains were dismissed as “anxiety”
“Right now, I should be teaching her how to drive,” her father, Mark, told STV. “But, we’re sitting here mourning her death”
A teen girl died of breast cancer after doctors said her chronic chest pain was “anxiety’ and dismissed her symptoms due to her age, her parents allege.
Isla Sneddon and her family, who hail from the Scottish town of Airdie, first sought medical care in July 2022, when Isla, then 15, developed a painful lump in her breast. But as her parents Michelle and Mark Sneddon told STV news, it was dismissed as benign hormonal changes.
Michelle and Mark Sneddon with their daughter Isla.
SWNS
Two years later, Isla’s general practitioner became concerned that Isla had breast cancer, and referred her for urgent care at a breast clinic, where her case was downgraded. As her mother told the outlet, “They kept saying Isla had anxiety causing everything. ‘[It] was anxiety. Isla, you’ve got pains in your chest, it’s anxiety you’ve got.’ ”
In September 2024, Isla became seriously ill. That’s when she was diagnosed with cancer. By then, the cancer had spread to the lining of her heart, lungs, and lymph nodes — and the family was told her condition couldn’t be treated.
“We couldn’t believe it. We were thinking, cancer? There should be treatments … but she’s terminal, and she’s got six months to a year,” Mark said. “I would hope, after a year, that she was still here.”
“She had six months and two days,” her mother, Michelle, said.
Now the family is petitioning the Scottish government for a change in medical guidelines. They are asking that children who are suspected of having cancer be subject to the same maximum wait times as adult cancer referrals. Calling it Isla’s Law, her parents have started a Change.org petition that already has more than 35,000 signatures. They are asking for children to be “treated with the same urgency and access to diagnostics as adult cases, particularly when cancer is a possible diagnosis.” The hope is that these changes will help diagnose and treat pediatric cancers earlier and more efficiently.
Isla Sneddon died at age 17, two years after she sought medical care for a lump in her breast.
SWNS
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“If they had treated her the same as an adult we think it would have been a different story, her father told the outlet. “Maybe not a different story that she wouldn’t have died, but maybe we would have had more time.”
Scotland’s Health Secretary, Neil Gray, is expected to meet with the family next week to discuss their petition, STV reports.
“Right now, I should be teaching her how to drive,” Mark told the outlet. “Buying her a car. Letting her go on with the rest of her life. But, we’re sitting here mourning her death.”
“If it helps families not to go through what we’ve been through, that’s what we want.”
Read the original article on People