No one was taking my pain seriously – was it because they thought I was a ‘strong Black woman’?

As the health secretary orders the NHS to stop recruiting race and diversity roles, Rosie Taylor looks at the harsh truths about the lack of care that some communities are facing every day in the health service

Merrisha Gordon was repeatedly dismissed by doctors before undergoing five operations to remove the damage (Amanda Clarke Photography)

It was only when doctors discovered by chance that Merrisha Gordon’s appendix was about to burst that they finally took her pain seriously. She had visited her GP and A&E on numerous occasions complaining of intense abdominal pain, which was at times so severe that it caused her to faint or vomit.

But while the former NHS manager, now 44, was repeatedly dismissed by medics, who told her to drink peppermint tea or practise deep breathing exercises to calm her down, her condition was becoming life-threatening. Her appendix was infected, and she needed emergency surgery to remove it, along with 10cm of her bowel and her belly button. The problems were caused by undiagnosed severe endometriosis, where cells from the womb lining grow elsewhere in the body, which had damaged her digestive system and bladder.

“I could have died, but I felt no one was taking my pain seriously. I suspected they thought I was making it up,” she says.