A mum-of-four has spoken of her heartbreak after she was given just a year to live because of an alleged hospital blunder.

Tanya Montgomery, 36, broke down in tears as she told how her children had been "robbed of their mum" following the alleged mistake by Southend Hospital.

This Is Essex at Easter

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The team at This Is Essex would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Easter. Mrs Montgomery, of Stanier Close, Southend, was given the all-clear after a routine smear test in 1991. However, the hospital failed to notice early signs of cancer, she claims.

She is now suffering from cancer of the cervix and lungs and has been given a year to live by doctors.

Incontinent and heavily drugged on painkillers, Mrs Montgomery is housebound and spends her days on a couch nursed by her mum Lynn and her young children Terry, 14, Charlie, 13, Jennifer, seven, and Victoria, six.

Lynn said: "We all feel very, very bitter towards the hospital. Because the children are very young they do not understand but they know their mother is going to die. The little one says she hates God because he is taking her mother away."

Simple laser treatment could have killed the cancer if it had been picked up, she claims.

Mrs Montgomery is suing the hospital for £50,000 in the High Court.

She said: "I feel my children have been robbed of their mum. All the money in the world could not make up for what's happened."

Mrs Montgomery heard nothing from the hospital after the cervical smear test in 1991. It was not until 1996 when she went for a second routine test the news was broken that she had contracted cervical cancer.

She said: "I thought no news was good news when I did not hear back from them. When I was told about the cancer I just could not believe it. My whole world collapsed."

A hysterectomy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy could not stop the disease as it spread from her cervix to the lungs.

The High Court writ claims the hospital was negligent in its duties. The hospital has until next month to notify the family's solicitors if it intends to contest the claim.

Chris Humbles, deputy chief executive and director of nursing and quality at Southend Hospital, said the matter was in the hands of solicitors for both parties.

He said: "We are obviously very concerned and sorry that Mrs Montgomery has developed cancer.

"We feel the case is defensible and the question of negligence will be decided by the court."

Bitter - Tanya Montgomery has been given a year to live after the alleged hospital blunder

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

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