"Can it get any worse?"

I was given a diagnosis of Stage 2 for cancer at the QMC, transferred to the City and given chemo and radiotherapy. This included an in-patient stay at the end of the 3 months treatment. My consultant arrived with a lot of students, and said casually, "We'll start on your neck next." "I said, "Pardon?" He laughed and said, "Didn't you know?" I tried to ask one of the students afterwards but she said don't worry, it's all being sorted out. At my four weeks appointment, the consultant came straight out and said they had made a mistake, it was Stage 4. I saw the file, with the page with the mistake. They gave me more radiotherapy, then in May 2007 told me that i had just "3-4 months" to live. One year on, I dropped off a card for the team, from whom I had had no contact in between. This generated a letter from the consultant, when he mentioned that there was indeed a 10% chance of patients with this type of cancer living longer. At this point I asked my gp to refer me to the Royal Marsden.

Since July of this year, the Royal Marsden have been trying to get a copy of my old scans sent on disc from Nottingham City Hospital. The Marsden have written, I have telephoned, the Cancer macMillan nurse has telephoned, my gp's clerk has telephoned. I have made two expensive trips down to the Marsden (I now live on benefits) to find out the difference between the Marsden's new scan and the old ones - but they have still not arrived. I am in despair. I feel like a non-person. I complained to PALS last week but I have had no response from them either. Today I tried to contact the Complaints Officer, and the first time was just put in limbo. I am sure that the team are just waiting for me to die and solve their problem. Have they ,lost my file? Why is three months not long enough to get a simple disc sent down to London?