A widow has won a five figure sum from Bradford Royal Infirmary after claiming staff failed to detect her husband had cancer.

Moyna Jennings told today of her three year battle against the hospital, whom she accused of being responsible for "a catalogue of errors" which led to the death of her 52-year-old husband Michael.

She says staff lost the results of a CT scan which showed he possibly had cancer - and found them on the day he died following an asthmatic attack in January, 1996.

And she claims it took her six months to get the results of a post mortem examination which confirmed the disease.

The 55-year-old, a staff nurse at Bradford's St Luke's Hospital for 20 years, has accepted more than £10,000 in damages from the hospital, which has not admitted liability.

Mrs Jennings, of Low Moor, claims the CT scan should have been done much earlier so the possibility of cancer could have been investigated further and then treated.

Mr Jennings first went to his GP in October 1995 complaining of chronic back pain. From then on he spent several periods in hospital undergoing tests and a lesion - or abnormality - was discovered in one of his kidneys.

Mrs Jennings, said her husband, who had suffered from asthma since his teens, was told the problem was not life threatening. A CT scan was taken on January 2, 1996, but he suffered a severe asthmatic attack six days later and died from breathing failure.

She said he had refused to take morphine for the pain because he said the drug was for people who had cancer and he did not have the disease.

Mrs Jennings, who now teaches nursing law at Shipley College, said she felt bitter.

"It was a catalogue of errors from start to finish," she said. "He had been in hospital for weeks before and they should have done the CT scan earlier.

"If they hadn't lost the scan report they would have known sooner and they could have started treating the cancer. Even then they were not sure the lesion was cancerous, which is why I asked for a post mortem examination to be carried out."

The examination revealed he had primary cancer in his bladder and secondary tumours in his spine which had caused the back pain. Medical evidence suggested that - if the cancer had been detected and treated earlier - Mr Jennings may have survived for another two years and would have been able to carry on his job as a Bradford car park attendant for 18 months.

The couple, who met when they were 17, had been married for 33 years and had two grown up daughters.

Mark Husband, litigation executive for Bradford solicitors Gouldsborough Hicks, said: "Mr Jennings suffered unnecessarily for more than a month and died prematurely as a result of the failure of staff at the BRI to accurately diagnose his condition."

A Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman said: "We have held a private meeting with the patient's family to explain the full circumstances of his death and answer any questions relating to medical aspects of his care.

"It should be recognised that even with the clinical expertise and latest medical technology on offer at Bradford's hospitals, some tumours - particularly bladder tumours - can be notoriously difficult to diagnose."

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