The family of a woman who died of cervical cancer after doctors diagnosed her too late has been awarded more than £200,000 damages.

Tracey Edwards, of Bray Close, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, was 26 when she died at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in May 1997, after a series of misrecorded smear tests. Doctors also failed to examine her when she was ill.

Her mother Jennifer -- who with her husband Michael sued the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, Oxfordshire Health Authority and Solihull Hospital, in the West Midlands, for medical negligence -- said the £236,811.80 damages was "a pittance".

The couple, of Garsington Road, Cowley, Oxford, went to the High Court on behalf of Tracey's three children Daniel Gibson, 10, Michael Martin, six and Katie Martin, five.

Mrs Edwards said: "This has been hanging over us for five years and as far as we're concerned it's not even worth mentioning.

"Even the opposition was shocked and must have thought -- 'great'. They expected to pay a lot more, but this was down to the judges."

Tracey died six years after a smear test at Solihull Hospital showed irregular cells. But her next check-up, in 1991, wrongly showed up all-clear.

She went on to have two children, but while on holiday and pregnant with her third baby, in January 1996, she was examined by an obstetric registrar who advised her GP that she needed a colposcopy -- an internal examination.

But on her return to the JR, in Headington, she was told there was nothing to worry about.

Despite the small payout, Mrs Edwards said it had been worth the fight.

She said: "We have won on every count."