'I've got breast cancer and have been left to die in prison miles from hospital'

A woman with cancer who is serving a six-year jail term fears she'll die behind bars after being shipped out to a prison miles away from the hospital treating her, missing more than 20 appointments.

Farah Damji believes she has been "ghosted" to HMP Eastwood Park after becoming an "irritant" to prison leaders at HMP Bronzefield where she spoke up for other female prisoners as well as raising issues about her own cancer care.

The mum of two who has stage 3 HER2 type breast cancer, and was chained to a prison guard for three weeks after life-saving surgery last April while on remand, has already missed the opportunity to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She has been told by her oncologist she has a less than 20 per cent chance of surviving without further treatment.

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Speaking from prison, Farah said: "I am so grateful to the Mirror for highlighting what's happening to me and to other women in prison with cancer. So, they ghosted me on September 13. On the 12th the health inspector from Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons came to see me in Bronzefield. They'd said they had been reading about my cancer, and I told them I'm not getting treatment. They said, this is awful and they'd come to speak to me properly the next day.

"On the 13th, guards came banging at my door, saying 'you're going, you're being moved' they threw some plastic bags at me and told me to pack my things. I was given 10 minutes to pack everything. I asked, why am I moving, but it came from the governor. She definitely didn't want the health inspector coming back to speak to me the next day. They put me with a prison driver and two officers in a taxi, rather than a prison van - I don't know how much that would have cost."

Back in April 2024, just a month after being sent to prison awaiting trial, needed a triple lumpectomy operation and was accompanied to University College Hospital in London by prison guards. Immediately after surgery she was chained to them while she attempted to recover. Damji spent three months in hospital, having picked up infections, before being sent back to HMP Bronzefield.

Dr Jake Hard, a GP with special interest in prison medicine, wrote a report for the court back in April 2024, fearing outcomes for Damji undergoing cancer treatment in jail, and speaking to the Mirror almost a year on he said all of his warnings have come true. Dr Hard, who is often called on as an expert in criminal trials, said that for radiotherapy treatment Damji would need to be taken by the prison every day for 15 sessions over three weeks. He said due to a lack of officers, other prisoners would not get out to their appointments, or the transport from prison to hospital would simply be cancelled when staff are moved to other parts of the prison for emergencies.

Damji never received any chemotherapy and radiotherapy while inside and has now passed the window for it to be effective. She has been told by her oncologist her survival rate is now as low as 20%.

The 57 year old says since moving prisons she has had one phone call with her oncologist at University College Hospital London, had no face-to-face appointments about her cancer care, and had two telephone consultations cancelled. She has been told her consultant was trying to apply for Phesgo, a cancer treatment that can extend her life chances, but is now unsure if that is going ahead. She said: "It would increase my survivorship to more than 67%, which is huge from 20%.

"I've been left to die, because they just do not give a s**t, out of sight, out of mind, there is no policy for prisoners who have cancer. There is nothing in place. They do it by the seat of their pants, and that's why so many prisoners are dying.

"If I was on the outside I would have had surgery, then chemotherapy and would now be recovering. You know the earlier you can detect cancer, the easier it is to treat, the outcomes are so much better. Everyone's trying to pass the buck, but this is my life."

"I'm so far away. I'm completely distraught. Like, no one can come and visit me here. It's just too far away. They've done this on purpose to isolate me. They are just malicious, nasty, stupid. How can they say that cancer treatment in prison is the same as cancer from the outside? It isn't. It isn't. And we need to do something."

Damji was sentenced in July to six years in prison. Five and a half years for stalking, six months for two counts of fraud and one day for a passport, to run concurrently.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “Prisoners are always given an explanation when being moved between prisons.” An HMP Bronzefield spokeswoman said: “We do not comment on individual prisoners. Should any prisoner have a complaint, there are well established complaints procedures in place.”

A spokeswoman for UCLH told the Mirror: “UCLH is precluded from discussing confidential patient matters with anyone but the patient. We have requested patient consent and will need more time to validate it.”