My name is Brendan Chesterton and I am the father of Emily Chesterton who passed away on 8th November 2022. Emily was 30 years old when she died of a pulmonary embolism after being misdiagnosed on two occasions when she visited her local GP practice in Crouch End.

Emily had been under the impression that she was seeing a doctor when she had in fact been seeing a Physicians Associate (PA) The PA failed on both occasions to spot Emily’s leg pain was in fact a deep vein thrombosis which ultimately travelled to her lungs and instead prescribed her medication for anxiety.

At the inquest the coroner in her summing up said that:

‘She should have been immediately referred to a hospital emergency unit. If she had been on either occasion, the likelihood is that she would have been treated for pulmonary embolism and would have survived’.

Emily would have been 34years old on 14th October of this year (2026) To celebrate her birthday and to raise money for the charities close to her and her friends and family's hearts, namely Salford Homeless, Bolton Adult Autism and The Tickers Club Heart Charity, my wife Marion, and I are launching this Go Fund Me to raise money for the above charities. Nothing can replace our beautiful, kind, empathic, sensitive, loving and talented daughter.

After her death we campaigned to raise awareness of the role of PAs, which led directly to a review being set up by the government and headed by Professor Gillian Leng. The conclusion of the review suggested many changes we had asked for, such as PAs not being able to prescribe, not working in doctors practices until they had been working under close supervision in hospitals for 3 years and that they should have different uniforms to other medical staff and wear name tags that also showed their role.

Emily was born in Salford in 1992, she went to Walkden High School and Eccles College. Later she attended Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), the college set up by Sir Paul McCartney. Later she won a bursary to the Royal Academy of Music in London (RAM) Emily appeared in several productions after this, singing songs from South Pacific at the Barbican Centre, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival for three seasons. She also performed at the Liverpool Royal Court Theatre in a Production of ‘Shout: The Mod Musical’, and in a production of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ at Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre.

We are setting an initial goal of £3000. Please give generously. Thank you, Brendan and Marion Chesterton