THE family of a woman who died of cancer is accusing Worcestershire Acute NHS Hospitals Trust of covering up damning evidence after her misdiagnosis.

Carol Tudor died of bowel cancer last May at the age of 50, almost two years after complaining of the usual symptoms of the disease.

Her husband, Calvin, and his daughters, Sonia and Joanne, complained to the Trust about the misdiagnosis.

Chief executive Ruth Harrison wrote back almost six months later, after two reports into the case had been compiled, to say only that a polyp (tumour) had probably been missed by an endoscopic examination.

Her letter to Mr Tudor failed to mention the fact that a report carried out by independent consultant colo-rectal surgeon Jonathan Reynolds criticised other aspects of Mrs Tudor's treatment.

She referred mainly to the evidence of the second, internal report, carried out by a consultant colleague of the criticised consultant.

Mr Reynolds pointed out that Mrs Tudor continued to complain of rectal bleeding despite there being no obvious cause for this symptom.

He also disagreed with the consultant's description of her symptoms, and said it was "negligent" not to repeat the colonoscope examination.

"At every clinic visit during the 1999/2000 period this woman reported rectal bleeding," he said.

"He cannot say that the clinical features were not typical of colorectal malignancy, because they clearly were."

Mrs Tudor was constantly told that nothing was wrong whenever she returned to Redditch's Alexandra Hospital, despite continuing to complain of pain.

When Mrs Tudor decided to go to a private hospital, she was immediately diagnosed with cancer of the colon.

A large tumour was removed, but the cancer had spread to her liver and she died six weeks later.

Mr Tudor, 51, from Webheath, Redditch, accused Ms Harrison of making a difficult time even worse for the family, and is calling for her to resign.

"Ruth Harrison has questions to answer," said Mr Tudor, who was married to Carol for 33 years.

"She should be looking at her position."

"We know, and they know, that mum should still be alive. We had trust in these people," said his elder daughter, Sonia.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust denied they had tried to cover up the findings of their inquiries at any stage.

"We were happy to make copies of both expert reports available to Mr Tudor," he said.

"The Trust has at all times responded openly to Mr Tudor. We strenuously deny any allegations of a cover-up."