Soap star Beverley Callard has described her battle to secure a radiotherapy appointment as 'one hurdle after the other' in a heartfelt update to fans. The actress, 69, who was diagnosed with breast cancer, said she had 'a bit of a nightmare' and spent hours on the phone trying to resolve the issue.
Beverley, who recently moved to Ireland to star in the RTE soap Fair City, was due to start radiotherapy following an operation earlier this year. However, the treatment has been delayed due to logistical problems surrounding the transfer of her medical records from the UK.
In her latest update, the former Coronation Street star revealed that despite being referred to a radiotherapist, she had not received any confirmation of an appointment. She then discovered that the hospital where she was supposed to receive treatment had 'never even heard' of her.
Instagram Update
Taking to Instagram on Wednesday evening, Beverley shared her frustration: 'I'm having a bit of a nightmare. I went to the hospital twice last week - they're fantastic. I had an appointment on Tuesday with one guy and then an appointment on Thursday with the oncologist, she was amazing. They've now referred me to the radiotherapist, and she said the appointment would come through quickly because it's quite urgent, it's been such a long time since my operation.'
'Anyway, I'd not heard anything. It was a Bank Holiday in Ireland on Monday, so I'd not heard anything. Yesterday, I tried to get in touch to find out what's going on. Four-and-a-half hours on the phone. The radiotherapy is at a [clinic] I've not been to, and I managed to get in touch with them after four-and-a-half hours of trying, and they've never heard of me and there's no record of me in the system.'
'So systems... that happens with everything, everywhere and so I'm going to have to go to the hospital again in the morning and see if I can see someone and say, 'Hello, I'm here!''
'I'm still in limbo and it's driving me mad. Come on, let's crack on now. Aside from that, I'm okay. Thank you for all your messages and telling me your radiotherapy stories as well, it helps. It's filling in the gaps and answering lots of questions that are in my head so, thank you. Lots of love.'
She captioned the post: 'Unfortunately it feels like one hurdle after the other at the moment! Trying my hardest to get appointment information and to keep moving forwards but after hours on the phone I've made little progress! Hopefully tomorrow will be better!'
Husband's Frustration
Beverley's husband Jon McEwan also shared his own video to voice his frustrations. He said: 'What a crap day we're having. Beverley won't say any of this because she doesn't like to offend anyone. But we go to the hospital last week and we're almost saying 'Well, you should be having radiotherapy now.' So it's all urgent but nothing Friday, obviously nothing over the weekend, nothing yesterday. Today, we waited until lunchtime. Nothing. So we phoned and she's been referred to the radiotherapy centre, or so we thought. We ring them. They've never heard of her. That's not good. She's obviously pretty fed up with everything.'
'Why can't these people... if they say they're going to do it, just do it!'
