It's heartbreaking to hear of a 26-year-old woman dying of cervical cancer. Worse still to learn that this woman, Becky Ryder, asked for a smear test two years earlier, when consulting a doctor about abnormal bleeding, but was refused as she was under 25.Now her widower, Paul, is campaigning with others who've lost family members to lower the English screening age back to 20, as it was 10 years ago. Good luck to them, but, if past attempts are anything to go by, all they're likely to encounter is condescension and the mantra of substandard health care: what happened to her is rare.
Guardian
