A 79-year-old pensioner was forced to protest inside a Monmouth GP surgery after a series of NHS failures which almost cost her both her eyesight and her chance to represent Wales in Jersey at the VETTS 6 nations Championships.

Helen Levy told the Beacon that the ordeal began at the start of a bank holiday, when she developed a rash on her chin and only ended three days later when she staged a protest inside her local surgery to obtain the antiviral medication she urgently needed.

The retired athlete first noticed the unusual rash and a swollen lower gum on a bank holiday Saturday and immediately drove to The Grange University Hospital but was told she just had mouth ulcers and to wash her mouth with salt water.

Later that evening she developed severe lower jaw pain developed and suspecting a tooth infection, she secured an emergency NHS dental appointment 25 miles away for Sunday morning.

The emergency dentist examined her and immediately recognized from her gum, the severity of the condition, saying he was convinced she had shingles.

She went back to The Grange A&E that afternoon and was told to stand outside by the front entrance and told: “You can't be in here with these vulnerable people", so she drove home.

Returning the next morning at 5.30am, she was ushered into a tiny room and left unmonitored with no triage and no patient wristband, pleading through an open door for someone to see her.

She spent nine hours on Monday waiting in isolation at the hospital but later discovered that the prescription she was given contained an incorrect dosage.

On Tuesday, Helen took the prescription to her local chemist in Monmouth who subsequently refused to dispense the medication, telling her it would not be effective for her condition saying she should return to The Grange.

She refused to return to The Grange and went instead to her local GP surgery in Monmouth without an appointment. Explaining that she needed a replacement prescription immediately to save her sight, and refused to leave.

Three hours later, the receptionist told her to leave and come back at 2pm, but Helen refused to leave and felt forced to become a ‘difficult patient’. Standing directly by the automatic entrance doors in full view of the desk, she loudly warned incoming patients: "Keep away from me, I'm infectious!"

Within 30 minutes, a doctor called her in. Visibly shocked by the state of her blistered face and the faulty A&E paperwork, he immediately wrote an antiviral prescription, three days after her medical emergency began.

Looking back on the experience, she said her greatest concern was not only for herself but for others who may be less able to advocate for themselves.

Helen added: “What happens to the elderly person who lives alone, has no transport, and cannot fight a broken system? I had to humiliate myself and shout in a waiting room. I was forced into becoming 'the difficult patient' in a final, desperate bid to save my sight.”