A WOMAN claims she has lost more than three stone and is losing her hair due to the stress of her back operation being cancelled three times in seven months.

Victoria Lewin, 33, of Quail Close, Stowmarket, needs an operation to correct a fracture in her spine and one of the discs in her back which has worn out.

The mother of five-year-old twins is married to Paul, 43. She takes 15 tablets a day to deal with the pain in her back.

Mrs Lewin was told in January she would have to wait three months for the six-hour operation.

“It got to April and I had not heard anything – the consultant’s secretary told me the operation would not be before June,” she said.

“It got to June and I made some calls and I was told the operation would be June 21. Two weeks before the operation I was told it was cancelled. I made a complaint.

“No-one seems that sorry. It’s affecting my children, one minute we are going in and then we do not. It’s put my life on hold.”

After the operation was cancelled for a second time in June, Mrs Lewin was told the procedure would take place on August 28.

But last Thursday the procedure was cancelled for a third time.

Since the East Anglian Daily Times contacted Ipswich Hospital they have now reinstated the August date for Mrs Lewin’s operation. A spokeswoman for the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust said: “We are very sorry that Mrs Lewin has had such a poor experience in gaining access to the operation she needs.

“It falls below the standards all patients should expect from us. Mrs Lewin’s original operation was cancelled because it fell on the BMA day of action and a medic who was a key member of the team, but not the surgeon, took part in the day of industrial action.

“Mrs Lewin’s operation will now go ahead on the original rescheduled date of August 28.”