Mel's six years of neck pain turned out to be cancer

Scan revealed 14cm tumour attached to heart and lungs

- Gary Porter

MEL Leverton was reassured for six years that her neck and shoulder pain was simply a trapped nerve caused by a collapsed vertebrae.

She underwent scans, consultations and was even offered surgery.

But what hadn't been spotted was a pear-shaped tumour growing silently in her shoulder - until it had reached 14 centimetres and attached itself to her heart and lungs. By the time the 54-year-old from Nantwich finally received her sarcoma diagnosis in June last year, the rare cancer had advanced and surgery was no longer an option.

Now receiving palliative care, Mel is channelling her energy into raising awareness so other patients don't slip through the cracks of a system that repeatedly missed the signs. Mel had been seeing a spinal consultant for her pains and scans taken over the six years had suggested that a collapsed vertebrae in her neck had caused a trapped nerve.