A cancer patient could have missed vital hospital treatment after a letter telling her the date for her operation was not delivered because of the postal strike.

Cynthia Hill with the letter

Cynthia Hill, 75, of Vanbrugh Close, Woodstock, was diagnosed with breast cancer at The Horton Hospital, in Banbury, on March 9.

On March 17, the hospital sent a letter telling her she would be admitted to hospital on March 29 for an operation to have the tumour removed.

"I have not received that letter to this day," said Mrs Hill, who only found out about the operation date after Sally Bridger, a Macmillan breast care nurse, rang to check she knew about it.

To add to Mrs Hill's distress, a letter dated April 7 was delivered to her home on Tuesday informing her of an appointment at the hospital breast clinic on April 13.

She said: "I missed that appointment altogether. I knew nothing about it."

Mrs Hill, who used to run her own catering business, got another appointment at the clinic on April 16, which was set up after Miss Bridger called to ask why she had not attended.

Mrs Hill said: "The April 13 appointment was an important date for me, as that was the day I was going to be told what treatment I would be given. I had to wait a further four days to find out what was a very important part of my life.

"I'm really rather cross. But I'm very pleased with the Macmillan nurse who took such care of me and found out those dates for me. If it hadn't been for her I wouldn't have even gone." Mrs Hill has been given a form to fill in for possible compensation but she said: "I'm not that fussy about the compensation, but I think the strike could have caused me a great deal of unhappiness."

She has since been told her operation was a success and the cancer has not spread.

Miss Bridger, who is based at the Horton Hospital, said Mrs Hill was not the only patient to be affected by the 16-day postal strike.

She said: "It's not ideal for the patients at all. They are the ones that suffer."

Jane Beese, a spokesman for the Royal Mail, said: "We would obviously like to apologise to this customer for the distress the disruption to Royal Mail services has caused. It's extremely important for everyone at Royal Mail Oxford to work together to prevent any similar disruption in the future."

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said they were not aware of any widespread disruption caused to patients during the strike. However, any individual case was regrettable. She said staff were good at using alternative methods to let patients know of appointments. Staff also often phoned patients to double check.