The claimant saw her GP (defendant) with symptoms of stomach cramps, bloating and diarrhoea. Following a normal stool result the GP referred her to the hospital but failed to tell the patient that an urgent referral to rule out other pathology had been made. It was claimed that the GP, by failing to alert her to the urgent referral, resulted in the patient not following up the referral and as a consequence there was a delay in the diagnosis by five to six months. It was initially alleged that her life expectancy had been reduced as a result of the delayed diagnosis and due to the psychological effect she was less able to deal with chemotherapy or resume work as she would have wished.