Father of five feels ‘robbed’ after wife died of cervical cancer despite all-clear smear test

John’s youngest son improvises on Mother’s Day and makes a card instead for his dad, while his classmates make cards for their mums.

John gets a card on Father’s Day too from the now nine-year-old boy who has no memory of his mother who died of cervical cancer in 2011, despite a previous clear smear test.

John’s devastation at the likely preventable death of his wife is yet another example, to add to the growing number, of a family torn apart by failures in the national cervical cancer screening programme.