A WOMAN who was still waiting for the results of her smear test after three months found out she had an aggressive form of cancer after pressing for the results.

Ann Hayes rang the Evening News after an article was published last month about a mother who was still waiting for the results of a second smear.

Mrs Hayes' story began last August when she had a cervical smear test.

The 50-year-old was told she would have the results by six to eight weeks, but still heard nothing by the end of October

Partly due to the recent bereavement of a friend with cervical cancer, Mrs Hayes decided to chase up the results of her test from her GP at Malvern Health Centre, Malvern Link, on Thursday, November 6, but was told the results were not back.

"I'm quite pragmatic, but something told me I had to pursue this," she said.

Mrs Hayes, a mother-of-three, said her doctor, who obtained the results for her, told her to ring him urgently the next day.

She was told she had severe abnormalities.

"I knew that the chances were that it was cancer because of the wording used," she said.

"Because of the sort of person I am, I could take it on board, but there was a large amount of shock.

"I should like to say at this point, if it wasn't for local GPs, people would be in real trouble."

After tests at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Mrs Hayes who had a private health scheme went for a biopsy, and was told she had grade three cancer.

In December she had radical sur-gery, which included a hysterectomy.

She has now been given the all-clear, but still attends regular check-ups.

"I've been very angry," said Mrs Hayes, of Malvern Link, Malvern.

"If you've got cancer, the longer you leave it, the more it can spread.

"First they persuade you to have smears or mammograms done, and then make you wait ages for the results."

A spokeswoman for Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said there was a national shortage of fully qualified Cytology Screeners - specially-trained people who analyse tissue slides - and that last year, there was a period of time when patient results took longer than expected.

She said a number of trainee screeners were undergoing a two-year qualification period as part of a continuing recruitment programme, before joining senior team members.

"This has allowed us to improve the quality of our service and we can now offer a four-week turn- round for normal smears, which is within the national guidelines," she said.

"We do offer our sincere apologies to Mrs Hayes for the delay in providing her test results."