Dolly Parton singer doesn’t know how long she has left after terminal cancer was ‘missed twice’

A Dolly Parton tribute singer has said she doesn’t know how long she has left to live after claiming her terminal cancer symptoms were dismissed twice by doctors.

Carla Palmer 41, says she was sent home twice after going to the doctors complaining of a small lump on her arm, which she later discovered was terminal cancer.

The 41-year-old claims her GP told her she simply had a “swollen lymph node” and this would likely go away over time. She first visited her GP after noticing the pea-sized lump on her left forearm three years ago.

Six months on from her first GP visit, she went to A&E for a second opinion and was sent home once again after allegedly being told by medics that the bumps were “nothing to worry about”.

Ms Palmer, an award-winning singer who previously toured the globe as the ‘9 to 5’ hitmaker, started experiencing night sweats and fatigue last year after noticing more lumps, before tests revealed she actually had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The rare cancer develops in the lymphatic system and spreads throughout the body. Sadly, doctors have said her disease cannot be cured, leaving her “devastated” and unable to continue her career.

She said: “I just felt let down at the time. They did say it was curable at stage one. For me to be allowed to go past that without a proper investigation is devastating. I feel like the doctors do fob you off. You have to advocate yourself and you have to persist with the problem.

“It’s easy for a doctor to send you away and for you never to go back. Not being able to perform has been absolutely devastating – that’s the hardest part. I’d built up a brand and a network and all seems to be for nothing.”

Ms Palmer, from Salford, Greater Manchester, first noticed the lump on her left forearm in early 2020, just before the Covid pandemic, and decided to visit her local GP clinic to check if it needed further investigation.

She explained: “It was just a small lump the size of a pea. I’d had it for a little while. The doctor just said that it was a ‘swollen lymph node’. They said: ‘That happens if your body is fighting an infection. It will go down over time. As long as it doesn’t swell or grow, leave it.’”

During the previous years, she had launched her Dolly Parton tribute act and won awards, which led to her performing on cruise ships. It wasn’t until after a concert six months later that she decided to get a second opinion after being warned by a friend that the lump could be something more sinister. But again, Ms Palmer claims she was turned away by a doctor again who told her it was not something she needed to be concerned about.

She explained: “It was a lady. She said it was nothing to worry about. She felt it and said it wasn’t moveable, so it was fine, and it was a swollen lymph node. I later had Covid, and my glands swelled up, so I assumed it was just because my body was fighting off that. But the lump never went down.”

Over the following years she noticed further lumps on different parts of her body, including under her armpit, near her collar bone and behind her ear, but did not get advice from her GP until last year after experiencing night sweats and extreme fatigue. On this occasion she was sent for blood tests, scans, a mammogram and a biopsy, and was later given the devastating news that she had incurable cancer on 11 July 2022.

She said: “I was absolutely devastated, I couldn’t believe it. It really brought my life into perspective. For the first few weeks, I was just trying to wrap my head around it. I spoke to my close friends but I was trying to hide it from other people. I wasn’t ready for my life to change that much. I was self-employed and I needed to work.”

Ms Palmer put off treatment while trying to save money by performing, but when her condition worsened she agreed to undergo chemotherapy and immunotherapy. She has now been forced to give up her career altogether as doctors worry that she could become ill from contact with large crowds.

The 41-year-old said she has decided not to ask specialists how long she might have left to live as she wants to approach life day by day. She added: “I never asked for my prognosis. I didn’t want to know. I wanted to concentrate on thinking about the next steps of my treatment.”

A GoFundMe page has now been set up by her friends in an effort to help her with her daily needs and has already passed the fundraising target of £3,000.