A KILBIRNIE woman diagnosed with HIV and cancer feels that she is being discriminated against by health boards because of her drug-taking past.

Joanne Paton has been HIV positive since 1987 and has battled cancer three times. But the 46-year-old says that she has been messed about by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Forth Valley.

Joanne says that Ayrshire Central Hospital told her in November that she was cancer-free but that just days later she received a letter from Glasgow’s Stobhill informing her that they had found pre-cancerous cells in her body.

She claims that no one has been in touch with her regarding these results and that her doctor in Kilbirnie is unsympathetic.

Through tears, Joanne told the Herald: “I’m done right in, I’m shattered. I’m not even getting a painkiller and I’m in so much pain. I’ve been left myself. They’re not interested. I get pushed from health board to health board.”

Joanne also claims that while she was an inmate at Cornton Vale Prison between 2014-2016, medics disputed her HIV status and refused her anti-viral medication for four months.

She believes that this has had a detrimental effect on her long-term health and has caused an old cancer scar to reopen.

She said: “They told me three times I have it, I don’t have it. They were messing about. It was that bad that I even doubted that I was HIV. It’s not right.

“I’m annoyed at the way I’m getting treated. I was meant to go for a pre-op at Stobhill Hospital and they phoned the day before and cancelled it. It’s because of my past.”

Both NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said that they take all patients’ concerns seriously and that they provide care regardless of an individual’s illness or background.

They said that while they could not comment on individual cases, they urged Joanne to contact the respective health boards.

A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley said: “When people receiving retroviral medication for HIV are admitted to prison, staff contact their prescribing hospital or clinic to check if the medication should continue. In certain circumstances, a decision may be taken for medication to be suspended for a period of time. This includes where there is evidence that a patient has not been taking previously prescribed medication correctly or have been taking other drugs which may interfere and lead to potential complications.”