I Had 11 Years of Chemotherapy for a Cancer I Didn’t Have
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Coventry & Warwickshire
I had 11 years of chemotherapy for a cancer I didn’t have
By David Lumb, in Coventry and Vanessa Pearce, West Midlands
Published 2 minutes ago
Becky Jones was just 21 when she was told she had a terminal brain tumour and months to live. She had not long met her partner and dreamed of a career in policing, but suddenly the future was looking bleak.
The diagnosis, by experienced cancer consultant Prof Ian Brown, led to 11 years of chemotherapy treatment which changed her life. She regularly felt sick, was unable to take part in family events, her career was curtailed, and she felt constantly "on eggshells".
Now 33, she has recently learned she never had cancer at all but an inflammation of the brain that could have been treated with steroids.
The mother of two is one of more than 40 patients taking legal action against University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust due to prolonged or unnecessary cancer treatment.
"I was told time and time again without the chemotherapy I would die," she said.
‘He’s ruined my life’
As a young woman, Jones says consultant Prof Ian Brown at University Hospital, Coventry, told her she would need to take chemotherapy drug temozolomide (TMZ) for the rest of her life. This is despite guidelines recommending six cycles over six months.
When she questioned multiple scans that did not seem to show evidence of a tumour, she says the consultant told her it would not be "visible to the naked eye".
It was only in 2025, when cancer cases at the trust connected to Brown were being reviewed, that she learned the truth.
"I never had a brain tumour. I was misdiagnosed and I’ve gone through all this treatment for the main part of my adult life, for no reason," she added.
"He’s just ruined my life, essentially," she concluded.
Image Source: Becky Jones
Many more of Brown’s patients have told the BBC they were given TMZ for years, leaving them with a variety of serious medical issues.
One patient said she believed the drug had made her infertile, while another developed leukaemia after 100 unnecessary cycles.
The preliminary findings of a review by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said patients at the hospital were routinely given prolonged courses of the drug with "little or no evidence of benefit".
It found staff failings at the hospital amounted to a "betrayal of patient trust" and also questioned why oncology pharmacy teams did not challenge patients receiving oral chemotherapy continuously for 10 to 15 years.
UHCW said it would not comment on individual cases, but said measures had been put in place to ensure "more robust oversight of the prescription and use of TMZ".
