Too often, young people with serious illnesses are dismissed or told they’re “too young” to be sick – and Independent readers have been sharing their own experiences of being ignored by the NHS.
Our community shared experiences of being dismissed by healthcare professionals, and speculated whether that was down to age, gender, or assumptions about their symptoms.
One reader’s story mirrored the challenges faced by patients like 19-year-old Milli Tanner, who went to 13 GP appointments and A&E visits over two years before being diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer. She was initially told her symptoms were caused by piles, IBS, or her age, and faced long waits for urgent testing before finally receiving a diagnosis.
Readers highlighted the emotional and physical toll of such dismissal, with one sharing being misdiagnosed for three years despite a private MRI showing multiple active MS lesions.
Another described how a family’s Lynch Syndrome history was overlooked, contributing to preventable deaths from bowel and uterine cancer.
Overall, our community stressed that listening, taking symptoms seriously, and empowering patients are crucial to prevent young people from being failed by the system.
Here’s what you had to say:
Early MS diagnosis struggles
In 2013, I started having simple partial seizures during my sleep. They'd wake me up with déjà vu and nausea, so I'd go to my GP the morning after. I remember asking for a referral to a neurologist, but all I got from him was, "You're resitting your 2nd year of A-Levels, so you must be having panic attacks. Here's a prescription for citalopram."
It took me having a bad day, where I had a seizure as I woke up at my normal time and a seizure as a triage nurse was doing a pupil reaction test. The neurologist got me an evoked potential test (which showed something slowing down signals from my left eye to my occipital lobe), an MRI, and a hospital stay where I had a lumbar puncture and bloods taken to rule out a differential.
In September 2014, I was told I had a clinically isolated symptom of MS. In 2015, I had a period of vertigo, which my university GPs told me was an eustachian tube blockage, but when I had loss of sensation on the left side of my face I knew to get in touch with the MS team. I got another MRI and then my clinically definite diagnosis. I was attempting to get my nursing degree by that time, but I dropped out because of stress and brain fog.
Thank goodness I met my now-husband a few months before that diagnosis. He's been there when I was unable to properly walk and with me when I started having generalised seizures, even after I had a status epilepticus event which had me hospitalised for 27 days! The only good thing I got from that was being taken off Copaxone (my first MS medication) to Ocrevus (stronger MS medication) because the neurologist deemed my MS aggressive. I'm able to sometimes walk again now. I was able to walk down the aisle for our wedding, and I'm now pregnant with our first child.
Charlotte
Young women ignored by GPs
Thirty years ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 60s. She was in a ward with a group of other women, and they kept in touch for the rest of their lives.
One of those women was 27. Her own mother had died of breast cancer, as had her aunt. When she felt a lump, she went straight to her GP, who said she was too young.
She went to surgery after surgery and to A&E numerous times. Same message – you're too young. They even referred her for therapy, who made her write out 100 times, "I do not have cancer."
It was only when she asked the doctor in a family planning clinic that they insisted she be seen straight away and diagnosed with breast cancer.
She had another ten years with her family until it returned, and this time it couldn't be beaten. But why did she have that awful time before she was taken seriously?
Nobodylistens
Would I still be here?
I was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 39. My GP admitted that she thought I was too young and only referred me to the consultant because she wanted to put my mind at rest (I had nursed my mum through terminal cancer the previous year) and because I was covered by private health insurance through my husband's work!
I have to ask – if I'd not had private health insurance, would I still be here 27 years later?
Jottie62
Lynch Syndrome tragedy
This infuriates me. My nephew was finally diagnosed with bowel cancer at 25. Turns out he had Lynch Syndrome, a cancer gene mutation. He died at 31. His mother, my sister, is also dead due to the gene, but from uterine cancer. They could have both possibly been alive if someone had taken his health problems seriously and our family had been identified earlier as carriers.
HeleeD
Dismissed because of age and gender
Story of my life. I'm disabled, 28, and the biggest factor other than being young is being a woman. EVERYTHING is either anxiety or your period, and it's disgusting. This is just another story I've read – more than I can count on my fingers – this year of women being diagnosed late because of medical negligence. It has to stop.
Polly
Permanent distrust of healthcare
I had a disease I was "too young" to have. The experience made me permanently hate the NHS. I felt like it was made to support boomers, and everyone else can go swivel. Now I live in a country with private healthcare (not the US), and I love it.
Anon
Gaslighting despite MRI proof
MS patient here – "Oh, it's just stress, you're a hypochondriac." My GP still gaslit me when I went in carrying a private MRI of my brain lit up like a Christmas tree with all the active lesions. It took three years after that to get referred to a neurologist.
uptoeleven
Similar mistakes repeated
Almost exactly the same thing happened to me 25 years ago. So no lessons have been learned in all that time. Treating bowel cancer with pessaries sounds like a sick joke now.
Concerned
IBS as a first-line diagnosis
I spoke to a retired senior GP years ago. IBS was the last diagnosis after everything else had been checked. Nowadays, it is the first thing many gastroenterologists diagnose (in my experience). One gastroenterologist told me, "You have IBS that won't cause the symptoms you're having. If I can be any more help, don't hesitate to call."
DafB
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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