He is one of the faces of the year. His cries in the Parliament of Andalusia directed against the president of the Junta and his subsequent protest with others affected by the delay in diagnostic tests who developed breast cancer made him one of the visible faces of the screening crisis that has shaken the Junta government in recent months. Anabel Cano, a 52-year-old Sevillian, showed up at the doors of the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville two weeks ago to request an urgent appointment with the oncology department.
Although he needs oncological physiotherapy sessions, the Andalusian Health Service gave him an “urgent appointment” for January 20. Today, after several complaints and after showing up daily at the hospital, he managed to bring forward his appointment by four days (to January 16). Everything he tries to do “turns into torture” because of the consequences of his operation and the pain he endures, he said in this interview.
The voice of Anabel, whose mammogram was revealed during a control session in October to reproach the health management of the PP within the Junta, already resonated in the Andalusian Parliament at the end of November, when she addressed the president directly with these words: “Juanma, you ruined my life, I died in life”.
Her case began in November 2023, when she had a routine mammogram after turning 50: “They told me they would call me if they saw anything and, since they didn’t call me, I forgot about it, and a year later they told me to get a mammogram and an ultrasound. Stranged by the appointment, she went to do the two exams. how politicians should behave.” Three months later, and 14 since she had the mammogram, it was confirmed that she had breast cancer, more than a year after the first test, which she missed for several months. The mastectomy left her without any mobility and with severe pain in her right arm, but she still has a few weeks left for her favorite appointment.
What steps have you taken since the start of your demonstration in front of the hospital on December 15?
I go to the hospital daily, where I have filed two complaints and the truth is that I think I managed to advance the appointment by four days because the guy at the window was desperate and I was very annoying.
You are part of a WhatsApp group where there are more than 300 women affected by delays who have developed cancer, although the President of the Council said that there were only about 23.1% of those affected in total.
Juanma Moreno said there were 23 of us, but today we are 306. Until today, December 15, there were 300. What is happening is incredible.
How can you summarize what you are experiencing due to the delay in diagnosis?
I still don’t sleep, I still don’t live, because everything I have in my arm is incredible. It fills with fluid again and I have unbearable pain, but I can’t get the physio to see me. I suffer from this pain and they only brought forward my appointment by four days, and my doctor requested it urgently. I’m going to have to go back to my private physio, even if I can’t go like before, because I don’t have money for that.
Because it is not just a question, it seems, of having a late diagnosis.
Everything does not stop at screening, because then there is the radiologist, the surgeon, the mammogram, the ultrasound, and you should also know that there are no physiotherapists or rehabilitators. And we continue with the consequences that this causes me, because I have very painful tendinitis, and I am desperate, bitter and I want not to live, because it is huge.
Do you want to continue fighting?
I don’t know if this is normal or not, if we should continue to fight, continue to demonstrate, continue to protest, which we should all do, because, like me, there are a lot of people. But hey, I will continue to fight as before and I will continue to see if I can advance the nomination, but I see it as black as coal.
What explanation are you given for an urgent appointment being given more than a month and a half after the doctor’s request?
What they tell me is that there is no physio, nor rehabilitators, and that there is no space. I know the kid – the teller – isn’t to blame, but as I tell him, “it’s just you showing your face.” And if there is none, you will have to tell anyone or tell the doctor that the surgeon sent me preferably, and I am not alive, but nothing.
Every day, I am told that there are no appointments, that there are no rehabilitators or physiotherapists, that there are two doctors. He told me that there were two doctors, one who came every week, on Fridays, and that’s the one he put me with, and another who came every two weeks. There are two doctors, only physiotherapists and now she is the one who must refer you to a rehabilitator. But of course, if there are no rehabilitators, no matter how many people they see, they won’t be able to refer me. The problem has reached a point where every time he sees me arriving, before saying hello, he tells me not to insist.
How long have you been experiencing this situation?
On November 28, my surgeon referred me with a special appointment to the physiotherapist for rehabilitation. He saw that he had no movement in his arm. From there, I repeat, it was November 28, nothing more. It’s almost the end of December and they keep saying it has to be January because it can’t be before.
You were a cleaner at the Virgen del Rocío hospital, were you able to return to work?
Not only have I not succeeded, but at every door I knock I come up against the disastrous bureaucracy of the Junta de Andalucía. Last December 24, I had to pick up my sick leave and I was told that I had to go on the 29th. In addition, I had part of my treatment on the 23rd, and I had to be there at 8 a.m., after an MRI with contrast, and I was in the hospital for three hours and came home exhausted.
Finally, my daughter was there at 7 a.m., and behind her were eight other people, all older. When he arrives at the counter, he is told that he must return at 10:00 a.m. in the same order as the queue. It’s scandalous. I believe that at the end of the day, I’m not going to die of cancer, I’m going to die of a heart attack, because it’s scary to endure what we endure in health care and management.
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