THE WELSH Ambulance Service has said it is “tremendously sorry” after a cancer patient with a broken leg had to wait more than an hour for an ambulance in Usk.

Andrea Bowen, aged 39, who has suffered from breast, bone, liver and lung cancer, had fallen over outside the Co-Operative shop on Bridge Street in Usk on Tuesday afternoon.

An ambulance was called at 12.15pm, but paramedics didn’t arrive until around 1.20pm.

Mrs Bowen, who broke her femur, has had to have surgery to have a pin inserted into her leg. Speaking from hospital she said she was in “excruciating pain” after she suffered a bilateral fracture of her femur.

“I broke the biggest bone in my body and literally split it in half,” she said.

“I’ve had two hip replacement and bone cancer, but the pain was pretty excruciating.

“The whole of Usk probably heard me screaming.”

Mrs Bowen, of Little Mill, said she was “disgusted” by how long she had to wait for an ambulance to arrive. A friend, who was there at the time and called the ambulance service several times, said it was a “disgrace” that she had to wait so long.

“I was in excruciating agony and they should have been there a lot quicker than that,” she said.

“I screamed my head off and would compare it to childbirth.”

Mrs Bowen, a mum-of-two, added: “I know they have a lot of pressure on them at the moment, and on many occasions I have been thankful for the NHS, but this is the second time I have had to wait for an ambulance.”

She said she also had to wait more than an hour for an ambulance after she suffered from photosensitivity caused by brain tumours. Her GP had to call an ambulance repeatedly to take her to hospital.

Mrs Bowen was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and had just finished an 18-week course of chemotherapy before breaking her leg.

She is currently receiving palliative care.

Darryl Collins, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s Acting Head of Operations for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area, apologised for the delay in the ambulance reaching the scene earlier this week.

He said: “This would no doubt have been a very painful and upsetting situation for Mrs Bowen, and for that we’re tremendously sorry.

“Our resources are dispatched as soon as crews are available to attend to provide care to our patients, so we would encourage Ms Bowen to contact us directly at the earliest opportunity so that we can address any concerns or questions she has about how we responded and talk about what happened in more detail.

“In the meantime, we’d like to offer her our thoughts and very best wishes for her recovery following her fall.”