--- title: "Doctor Accidentally Messages Patients to Say They Have Aggressive Cancer" description: "Patients had their holiday spirits quashed and were unfairly distressed by the accidental mass text sent just two days before Christmas." date: "2023-01-06" modified: "2023-01-06" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/doctors-accidentally-tells-patients-they-have-cancer" categories: - "Cancer" - "Future Society" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "cancer" - "texting" - "the digest" --- # Doctor Accidentally Messages Patients to Say They Have Aggressive Cancer ![Patients had their holiday spirits quashed and were unfairly distressed by the accidental mass text sent just two days before Christmas.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Holiday Harbinger A doctor's office in England tried to wish its patients a "Merry Christmas!" and a "Happy New Year!" — but instead, the Askern Medical Practice accidentally texted thousands of them that they had aggressive lung cancer, the [*BBC* reports](). "Diagnosis — Aggressive lung cancer with metastases," reads the comically misfired message. "Thanks." The message also instructed recipients to start filling out a form to claim benefits for having a terminal disease. Yikes. It would take close to an hour before a correction was sent out, offering "sincere apologies for the previous text message sent" in error. "Our message to you should have read We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year," the office wrote. ## A Mean One The timing couldn't have been worse. The text was sent out just two days before Christmas, and understandably, it dampened the holiday spirit for those who received the distressing news. One patient who was waiting on test results, Sarah Hargreaves, told the *BBC* that she "felt sick to my teeth and broke down." "I had just had a mole removed and was awaiting a result from a biopsy," Hargreaves continued, "and I had been to hospital as my smear test came back abnormal, so yes, I was very worried." Another patient, Carl Chegwin, who received the message along with his mother, said the text "was enough to break someone." "The first thing I thought was, 'is this some kind of sick joke?'" he told the broadcaster. "They've just told people a few days before Christmas they've got terminal lung cancer. They can't do that." We've probably all sent an embarrassing text to the wrong person by mistake, but almost certainly none as embarrassing as this. **More on cancer:** *[Doctors Test Brain Implant That Destroys Tumors]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()