‘Accept our sincere apologies’: Clinic mistakenly sends cancer diagnosis messages to patients instead of New Year wishes

A clinic in the United Kingdom shocked patients by mass texting them about their "aggressive cancer" diagnosis, BBC reported.
 
On December 23, messages which read that their lung cancer had spread to other body parts were sent to thousands of patients registered with Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster.
 
The text message instructed them to complete a form intended for terminally ill people in order to receive benefits.
 
But almost an hour later, patients got a second message informing them that the first message was sent incorrectly.
 
"Our message to you should have read 'we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'"," the clinic wrote. "Please accept our sincerest apologies for the previous text message sent."
 
Sarah Hargreaves, who said she had recently had a mole removed and was awaiting biopsy results, was one of those who got the messages. Additionally, she had a smear test, the results of which were negative.
 
She had gone shopping when she received the message. She broke down and "felt sick to my teeth," she said.
 
Hargreaves tried calling the clinic urgently but was unable to reach anyone. Someone else claimed that both he and his mother had received the messages. He said anyone would have been devastated by the unexpected "cancer diagnosis" message.
 
Carl Chegwin expressed his shock at the message and questioned whether it was a "sick joke."
 
"They've just told people a few days before Christmas they've got terminal lung cancer. They can't do that," he told the BBC.
 
In a different interview with NPR, the man stated that he will not return to the clinic. He'd been going there for thirty years.
 
Chegwin was dissatisfied with the clinic's apology.
 
"To me, that apology, it's not even an apology," he told NPR. "It's kind of an arrogant, nonchalant, handwaving."