A mum has told of the heartbreaking moment her son was diagnosed with cancer after she "begged" for months for GPs to take his symptoms more seriously.

Cal Banville-Winter, 23, had "countless" phone appointments with doctors as he endured pains in his neck, back and chest, and an "unbearable" cough.

But it was not until worried mum Sarah Banville took him to an urgent treatment centre that he was x-rayed and told to go straight to hospital.

After spending a week at the QEQM in Margate, including a stint on the cardiac ward, a scan finally revealed the reason for Cal's poor health - a 20cm mass near his heart and chest.

The former Canterbury schoolboy was blue-lighted to St Thomas's Hospital in London, where it was confirmed the tumour was cancerous.

Sarah told KentOnline she is speaking out following their experiences because she wants attitudes towards young people to change.

The mum-of-two said: “We were told by a doctor that they didn’t expect him to have cancer - but that’s part of the problem. People see a young man and don’t acknowledge something could be wrong.

“They think ‘he’s young, he’s going to be all right, go get some rest’ but he kept deteriorating, his cough was unbearable and it was constant.

“We had countless phone appointments. We knew something was wrong.

“I am so grateful for the NHS - they’ve saved Cal’s life so many times. But young people do get these cancers, and lessons need to be learned.

“I understand the pressures, I understand the funding issues, I don’t want to rip anything from them - but the casualties are always going to be human."

Cal’s battle with his health began in January last year when he began to have pains in his neck, back and chest.

GPs initially believed it to be linked to poor posture, but the symptoms began to worsen as he developed a chesty cough and paleness in his complexion.

Over the course of July and August last year, Sarah says she “had to beg” to get Cal’s symptoms taken more seriously, after phone appointments with a number of different doctors failed to provide any answers.

“We had lots of friends and family saying how he didn’t look himself and we decided we needed to get him an appointment because he was a pretty healthy guy before all of this happened,” she said.

“We had phone calls with five different GPs. We managed to see a couple of them in person. We were told it was just a virus and to let it run its course, but Cal would be laying on the floor at home in terrible pain.

“What he's been through, it’s heartbreaking. You listen to the adverts on TV telling you about the warning signs of cancer and it’s killing us because we did that but he wasn’t taken seriously. We had to beg."

When Cal arrived at St Thomas's he spent the next five weeks in an intensive care unit as medics drained litres of fluid from his lungs and heart sac.

A biopsy then delivered the devastating news that he had acute B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and blood clots near his heart.

Cal was advised that if the cancer was left untreated he would not make it to Christmas.

Sarah, a librarian and author, said that he was sent to Guy’s Hospital to start chemotherapy following the diagnosis and has had constant battles with infections and other illnesses since.

“Cal had chemo every two weeks up until Christmas, suffered from various infections and was hospitalised over Christmas in Margate with a chest infection - he almost died," she said.

“We were in A&E almost every weekend, which is as horrendous as it sounds.

“All the infections delayed the radiotherapy, so instead of having daily sessions in January, that was postponed to February.

“My husband Quinton would stay up in London with Cal while I’d be at home with our daughter Mae, so there was so much going on in such a short period of time.”

Having completed his latest bout of treatment, Cal is now back at home recuperating - although he has recently had to battle Covid too.

Alongside spending time with 12-year-old sister Mae, he is a keen film enthusiast and hopes to pursue a career as a voice actor.

Sarah described her son as “a real character” and praised him for his endurance during the various bouts of treatment.

She said: “Cal’s strong, he’s brave. He’s got the most incredible dark sense of humour, which has really saved us. Almost immediately he started cracking jokes about it and it helped us process it.

“He started a Twitter account and called his cancer Mona the Lymphoma. It’s helped him talk about it. He’s been in the worst pain but he’s been so amazing.

“Everything flashes ahead of you. He’s had to consider having a family and what he wants from life in such a short amount of time, but he’s taken it in his stride."

For Cal's family, all that is left to do now is wait and try to get their lives back on track, as Cal waits for a PET scan in eight weeks that will determine what his next steps are.

Sarah started a new job just before Cal’s diagnosis and fears for her future employment having spent a lot of her probation period on compassionate leave.

Meanwhile, Quinton, a freelance illustrator, has also had to stop working to support Cal.

The family say they are worried they could lose their home and that “nothing prepares you for the impact of cancer”.

"Ultimately we've been unable to work properly for months." began Sarah.

“But for now it’s about loving him and helping him recuperate for a bit, enjoying having him home.

“Anger is the last thing we’ve felt. We’re full of love and gratitude to still have Cal here, and we’re still fighting this thing. There’s a huge amount of compassion for others going through this.

“If anything comes from us telling Cal’s story, it should be that parents and children shouldn’t give up. We knew something terrible was going on and it’s too big a risk to take.”

The family have also praised the work of charities Macmillan and Young Lives Versus Cancer.

KentOnline was unable to secure a direct response to the concerns of Cal's family because of "patient confidentiality".