WHEN Leila Evans first noticed a lump on her daughter Nansi Alys’ toe, she was told it was just a wart. For more than a year, doctors reassured her it was nothing more than a benign growth. But Leila, from Criccieth, couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Her instincts were correct - what had been misdiagnosed as a wart turned out to be an incredibly rare form of cancer, affecting only six people per million. Leila first took her daughter, then aged three, to see a GP in May 2021. She was initially told the growth was a wart, but Leila was unconvinced, and the lump kept growing.
In June 2022, another GP said it was a benign cyst. In July 2023, Nansi Alys had an operation at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool to remove the growth. Tests were then carried out on what had been cut off to determine what it was.
After a six-week wait, the family was told that Nansi Alys had desmoid-type fibromatosis, a rare type of soft tissue sarcoma cancer. Medics told the family that part of the tumour still needed to be removed, and Nansi Alys required a second procedure and skin graft in September 2023. After this, some of the tumour still remained, and Nansi Alys, who has an older sister and brother, now has scans to monitor any changes to her health.
Leila said: “My daughter was misdiagnosed for over a year. I said to the doctors, ‘Are you sure it is a wart?’ It just didn’t look like one to me. “The doctors should have listened to me.
I’m her mother, an.