"Diagnosis period"

I fell ill in September 2015 and was diagnosed late October with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had chemotherapy starting 4 November and had 3 different treatments, 12 rounds of ABVD, 3 rounds of GDP and 3 rounds of brentuximab culminating in a stem cell transplant on 12 October 2016. Throughout my treatment I have received excellent and timely treatment with minimal waiting times.

There are 2 areas though I feel could be improved. The first is in patient awareness of the symptoms of cancer. I never went to my GP till I was ill but retrospectively there were clear signs of cancer which through my ignorance of the symptoms I never picked up.

The second area was with the initial diagnosis of my cancer. I got admitted by my GP to St Johns hospital and picked up by the ward consultant who diagnosed cancer. I then was handed over to the oncology unit. What did not happen was someone explaining to me who was doing what and where I could go to for information ( it took 4 weeks to diagnose my cancer ). During this period I was contacting anyone whose number I had to get my test results etc. If someone had explained the diagnosis/treatment process and I had a single person to speak to it would have helped greatly.

Once I had been diagnosed with cancer and I had met my consultant that communication was in place but there was certainly a gap in the diagnosis period.