Dismissed As IBS. Almost Died

Cydnie Malone was told her pregnant-looking belly was just IBS – but doctors missed something that almost killed her.

The 31-year-old from Banstead in Surrey first noticed severe bloating, nausea, and pain under her ribs back in July 2023.

Her stomach became so hard and full that it would wake her up at night, gurgling as the fluid moved around.

But despite visiting Epsom and St Helier hospitals between 20 and 30 times over two years, Cydnie claims she was constantly brushed off with a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome.

This was even after blood tests showed her CA-125 ovarian cancer marker was unusually elevated.

“Those levels are meant to be 30 and under,” she said. “Anything over 30 and above they panic about.

“Mine were 97, and they did nothing about it.”

As her condition worsened, Cydnie says her cancer markers eventually soared to 497, yet she was still told there was nothing wrong with her.

It was only after returning from a trip to New York in April 2025 with a rapidly ballooning stomach that she went to a different hospital in desperation.

Medical staff there immediately drained six-and-a-half litres of fluid from her abdomen.

The following day, she was given the devastating diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer that had already spread to her other organs.

Within weeks, she was undergoing major surgery to remove 15 tumours alongside a full hysterectomy, which ended her hopes of having another child with her partner.

“I was frustrated, I was angry, and I felt let down because it was right in front of them and I kept telling them something was wrong with me,” Cydnie said.

Now in remission after six gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, she is urging other women to push for answers and demand CA-125 blood tests if they know something is wrong.

A spokesperson for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We are very sorry to hear about Ms Malone’s experience.”

They’ve promised to reach out to Cydnie and carry out an investigation.

Cases like Cydnie’s make it painfully clear why an automatic second‑review system for abnormal blood results isn’t just sensible, it’s overdue.

A CA‑125 of 97 should never have been left to one clinician’s interpretation. That’s more than double the upper normal limit. In any safety‑minded system, that should trigger an automatic escalation.

A proper second‑review system would automatically flag climbing cancer markers, mismatched diagnoses, repeated abnormal results, and anything a busy clinician might miss.

St Helier Hospital must be held accountable for failing to act on abnormal results, missing escalating warning signs, and allowing a preventable crisis to unfold.

I hope she has a damn good lawyer, because every one of those so‑called “specialists” who ignored her symptoms and misread her tests deserves to be held fully accountable.

This is medical gaslighting — specialists dismissing symptoms, minimising pain, and ignoring abnormal test results until the patient is left fighting for their life.

More doctors need to be properly investigated, and serious concerns should always be reported to the General Medical Council when a clinician overlooks a tumour or speculates rather than following the evidence. The system must ensure that doctors are held accountable, and that every practitioner is regularly reviewed to protect patient safety.

This isn’t about striking off doctors for the sake of it — it’s about ensuring that those who repeatedly ignore evidence, dismiss symptoms, or fail to follow proper diagnostic pathways are held to account.

It’s awful when you know something is wrong, but they don’t listen, ignore the results, and gaslight you — especially as a woman, when “Maybe it’s anxiety” becomes the default excuse instead of proper care.