Chipping Norton footballer died after Chemotherapy (From Cotswold Journal)
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Chipping Norton Football Club Shaun Weller liver cancer
10:30am Saturday 27th October 2012 in News
Chipping Norton footballer Shaun Weller
CHEMOTHERAPY “hastened” the death of a football-mad father, an inquest found.
Chipping Norton Football Club player Shaun Weller, aged 22, died on May 2, two days after beginning chemotherapy for a rare form of liver cancer. The window cleaner died at The Horton Hospital in Banbury after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter recorded a verdict that Mr Weller’s death was an accident after hearing from medical staff. His family afterwards praised the NHS and paid tribute to a“considerate” son.
Mr Salter said: “It does seem to me that the treatment of chemotherapy hastened the death.
“That is not to say there is any negligence in the treatment. Medical treatment does sometimes result in death or hasten death. That may be because of some adverse reaction or complication that can’t be anticipated.”
In a statement, GP Dr Stephen Quelch said he referred Mr Weller for scans after he complained of chest pains. He was diagnosed with the terminal disease on February 2 and oncologist Dr Kinnari Patel saw him on March 22.
Because the cancer was so rare, help was sought from specialists at London’s Royal Free Hospital, she said.
Dr Patel said: “Shaun expressed the wish to have anything that might be beneficial, no matter how toxic it was.” She said: “I wonder if some very rare event has happened with chemotherapy that I don’t think we could have foreseen.”
His dad Anthony, mother Charmaine, sister Kim and partner Sally Keen attended the inquest in Oxford.
Mr Weller, of Cotswold Crescent, Chipping Norton, played for Chipping Norton FC and was dad to Tiana, aged three. His mother said that she didnt feel anyone was to blame for his death, adding: “He was a considerate young lad. He would always worry about everyone else.”
A charity football match at his former club raised £2,000 to support his daughter and Oxford University cancer research. A coffee morning at Chipping Norton Town Hall on Wednesday,November 7 from 9am to midday, will also raise funds.
