Vicky Mcloughlin’s family is fighting two hospital trusts after surgeons refused to remove her stage three bowel tumor.
The 66-year-old, from the West Midlands, was diagnosed in November 2024 after her daughter Chloe, 33, noticed she had been struggling to use the toilet for two weeks. A later endoscopy failed to spot the mass because it was so large that doctors passed right over it, mistaking it for normal tissue. Chloe told Sell Us Your Story: “They were just going past it as it looked like part of her.”
By the time the cancer was caught, the tumor had already created a devastating complication. It had eaten through tissue to form a hole connecting her bowel and cervical area, leaving Vicky dependent on a stoma bag and two tubes surgically inserted through her back into her kidneys to drain urine. She has developed sepsis five times in the past two years and now faces regular hospital visits every fortnight for fluid drainage and infection treatment.
Chloe, who runs a dog walking business in Tamworth, has pleaded with surgical teams at both Solihull Hospital and St Mark’s Hospital in London to operate. Both declined, citing the extreme risks involved. In a formal letter to Vicky, doctors at one unit warned they had “significant concerns” about her ability to withstand the procedure. The letter continued: “The combination of her overall fitness and the magnitude of the disease with the likelihood of a positive resection margin means that we think progressing to an attempted major pelvic resection would not be in her best interests.”
The family was told the operation could cost Vicky her leg and would likely leave her with diminished quality of life. Chloe rejected that assessment outright. “They said she’d have a better quality of life without the surgery – but to me that’s not the case,” she said. “It’s constant – every other week she’s back in hospital. It does nothing – it’s just torture.”
Chloe added that her mother had been in “such a strong position” before the repeated complications mounted. “Now I don’t know how she’s alive today,” she said.
The treatment limitations have been severe. Vicky was denied chemotherapy because of her recurrent infections and received only two rounds of radiotherapy instead. Her current regimen consists largely of managing symptoms: multiple drains for fluid collection, the kidney tubes, and constant monitoring for sepsis. The most recent drain failed initially because the fluid had become too thick to pass.
Despite everything, the cancer remains contained to the bladder, bowel and cervical area without further metastasis. The family views this containment as proof that surgical intervention could still be curative. “The only way to cure her is through surgery,” Chloe said. “A hospital in London, and one in Solihull both refused. They said it was too major and she could lose her leg and they said with her age they don’t know if she’d survive the surgery.”
The initial diagnostic journey began when Chloe noticed her mother “wasn’t herself” and learned about the fortnight-long struggle with bowel movements. Bleeding prompted the endoscopy, and when that came back clear, Chloe took Vicky to A&E, where clinicians felt a mass in her cervical region during examination. The biopsy confirmed bowel cancer that had progressed locally.
University Hospitals Birmingham, which covers Solihull Hospital, issued a statement through a spokesperson: “We have great sympathy for Mrs. Mcloughlin and her family at what is clearly a difficult and distressing time. Decisions about radical cancer surgery are very complex and are never taken lightly. Any advice given is based on a careful assessment of the potential benefits and risks, and are coordinated by a multi-disciplinary team, with the clinical team’s overriding priority being what is safest, and in the patient’s best interests.”
London North West University Healthcare trust, responsible for St Mark’s Hospital, declined to discuss specifics. A spokesperson said: “The trust can’t comment on individual patients’ circumstances.”
Chloe remains undeterred by the dual rejections and continues pushing for her mother to be reconsidered for the operation she believes is Vicky’s only chance.
Vicky’s next scheduled hospital visit for fluid drainage and infection monitoring falls in approximately two weeks at her regular West Midlands treatment center.