The anguished parents of an 11-year-old Dihewyd schoolgirl suffering from blood cancer have told how they have been pushed “from pillar to post” by the health service.

Paul and Lucy Wallace from Synod Inn have hit out at the “unacceptable” delay they say elapsed before their daughter Aleisha was diagnosed at Cardiff’s Heath Hospital – after they say a tumour was picked up by a scan at Bronglais Hospital six weeks previously.

They claim that on top of the stress of their daughter’s illness, they have also had to cope with a harrowing litany of broken appointments and lack of communication from health professionals over the past few months.

Since Aleisha first experienced excruciating pains from what was originally thought to be a groin strain last June, the distraught couple estimate they have been forced to travel around 4,000 miles between hospitals in Aberystwyth, Carmarthen and Cardiff.

Recalling the time when they realised something was seriously wrong with their daughter, Paul said: “Aleisha was screaming in pain – the sound of that screaming is something that haunts you.

“When she first went in to Cardiff’s Heath Hospital she wasn’t given any pain relief for well over an hour.

“They reckoned she had an infection, but when Aleisha was finally booked a biopsy at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham they said she needed to be antibiotics-free for a week beforehand.

“Yet Cardiff continued to feed her antibiotics for a few more days – it was unbelievable.

“On 4 August it was finally confirmed she had cancer, but Cardiff never got back to us, so after 72 hours of hearing nothing I got in touch with them myself.

“When I said I wasn’t happy they replied they hadn’t known it was cancer and that the paperwork from Birmingham was sent to the wrong place.”

The health board has been asked to comment.

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