'Doctors dismissed a lump in my neck – and now they've told me it's cancer'

A MID Devon man was diagnosed with cancer for a second time after claiming a lump in his neck was repeatedly dismissed.

- by HOWARD LLOYD

Doctors spotted the swollen lymph node in the right side of Shane Southwood’s neck in September 2023 during a check-up.

He went for a routine ultrasound but says he was told the lump was 'completely normal. The same thing reportedly happened again a year later.

Shane, 27, who had fought cancer as a child, finally pushed for a biopsy in March this year and was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma.

He has now started chemotherapy treatment and has been told it is unlikely he can have his own biological children.

Shane, a removal man from Copplestone, said: "I was angry. I was angry that it’s come back, but angry that I don’t know how quickly this thing has progressed. I don’t know how long it’s been going on for.

"I also felt a bit annoyed. It just felt like so much waiting around to find out something which could have maybe been caught sooner."

Shane was previously diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma aged 12 in February 2010. He had initially thought he just had a sickness bug like the rest of his family, but knew something was wrong when he did not recover.

After six rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he was given the all clear in November 2010.