The Scottish Government faces growing pressure to urgently review cancer paediatric cancer referrals following the death of a teenager almost a year ago.
Airdrie teenager Isla Sneddon died, aged 17, in March 2025 after her cancer referral was downgraded from urgent to routine because of her young age.
Holyrood’s public petitions committee will now write to Health Secretary Neil Gray to demand clarity over the “deeply disturbing” case.
Her parents, Mark and Michelle Sneddon, appeared in Holyrood on Wednesday as the committee opted to keep their petition open “by exception” to seek assurances from the Scottish Government.
The family are demanding that children with suspected cancer are referred for biopsies with the same urgency as adults.
In Scotland, adults with an urgent referral must not wait more than 62 days for cancer scans, but similar guidelines do not exist in paediatric cancer care.
Mr Sneddon said the petition’s outcome was “deeply meaningful” and represented an “important step” for children and families across Scotland.
Speaking exclusively to our sister title The Herald, he said: “Nothing can undo the loss. Our lives have been permanently changed.”
“No parent should ever feel that opportunities to save their child’s life should be missed,” he said.
Isla first sought help from her GP aged 14 over painful breast lumps, which were first ruled to be fibroadenoma – benign hormonal breast lumps, in July 2022.
Doctors also dismissed her pain as anxiety. But her pain worsened and the lumps grew in size with GPs ordering an urgent referral for biopsies by 2024.
However, her referral was downgraded by the breast clinic to routine that same month because her age meant she did not meet national guidelines.
Her condition deteriorated, leading to intensive care and a 10-week stay at Glasgow’s Golden Jubilee Hospital, where a sarcoma – a rare and fast-spreading cancer – was discovered.
It had already spread to her heart, lymph nodes and lungs and she was given just six months to live.
Mr Sneddon said: “The last year has been a blur to us.
“Everybody that met Isla fell in love with her. I loved her from the minute I saw her. I should be teaching her how to drive and getting her a car and getting on with the rest of her life.
“Our lives have just halted. It’s just a stalemate. It’s a really hard thing. We were privileged to have her for the 17 years we had her but she should have been here for longer.”
“We’re left with what ifs. If there had been early intervention, would there have been more time with Isla? That’s one of the big things that plays on our mind – what if?”
“If we can spare another family going through what we have went through, then that would make all the difference,” he said.
He added: “Scotland has one of the highest mortality rates in Europe for children under the age of 18. This is a statistic that should concern us all.
“We believe that early intervention, clear and clinical pathways and consistent decision-making across age boundaries are essential if outcomes for children are to improve.”
Progress has been welcomed with GPs given additional guidelines and resources to assist them in detecting cancer in young people.
The Scottish Government has also committed to addressing the lack of data collected on children and teenagers that get cancer.
However, speaking on the family’s behalf, Dame Jackie Baillie, the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, told the committee: “When Isla’s GP did then make an urgent referral for a biopsy, it was at that stage that the clinic downgraded the referral from urgent to routine and we lost even more time.
“They decided that on the basis that she was young. That was it. That was the sole clinical judgement, that she is young so we will just make it routine.
“That is inappropriate to downgrade just on the basis of somebody’s age.”
Committee convener Jackson Carlaw urged said the petition would be held open “by exception”, with the committee intending to write to the Scottish Government for clarity.
He said: “To think that something might have been avoided had their issue not been dismissed in quite that way, simply because of a prejudice that young people might have cancer, I think is deeply disturbing.”
The Scottish Government’s written submission said: “There was clinical consensus that children with cancer symptoms should be treated as quickly as possible and it would therefore not be appropriate to subject these urgent cases to a longer 62-day target. The 62-day target therefore applies to adults over the age of 16.”
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