Jess’s Rule encourages GPs to rethink diagnosis
A new primary care initiative, called Jess’s Rule, has recently been announced in the UK. It is named after Jessica Brady, a 27-year-old woman who contacted her GP practice about her symptoms more than 20 times over a five-month period. Shortly after, Jessica passed away from cancer in December 2020.
The initiative has been set up to “encourage GPs teams to rethink a diagnosis if a patient presents three times with the same symptoms or concerns, particularly if symptoms unexpectedly persist, escalate, or remain unexplained (NHS England, 2025).
Health Inequalities
Jess’s story shows that far too often young people’s symptoms aren’t taken seriously, and they can be “dismissed simply because they appear to be too young to have a serious illness” (BBC News, 2025).
It is also important to highlight that people can experience inequitable healthcare access and treatment on the basis of gender and race. For example, gender inequality is “reinforced by historical male-centric biases in medical research, underinvestment in women’s health, and gaps in healthcare system design (Jeffrey, 2025).
Additionally, “women, especially black women, are more likely to experience ‘pain bias’, where a health professional overlooks or ignores the level of pain they feel” (The Women’s Organisation, 2024). People from ethnic minorities can also be negatively affected by discriminatory and poor medical treatment, which in turn prevents diagnosis.
Stuck in limbo
Alongside it currently being difficult to get a GP appointment, it can be a challenge to progress further once you do get one. In this author’s experience, it is often a case of being stuck in blood test limbo, where blood tests are repeated often but there’s a reluctance to refer you to a consultant or for scans, so progress is slow or non-existent (whilst symptoms get worse). This situation can be particularly frustrating for people who are chronically ill and trying to get a diagnosis.
The Jessica Brady CEDAR Trust
Jess’s family have since established The Jessica Brady CEDAR Trust, a charity that fundraises to provide cancer awareness training and to improve earlier diagnosis in GP surgeries.
It is my sincere hope that both the creation of Jess’s Rule and The Jessica Brady CEDAR Trust will help to address the health inequalities that exist in the UK
Further information about The Jessica Brady CEDAR Trust can be accessed here.