Georgia O’Connor celebrates victory over Erica Juana Gabriela Alvarez during their Super-Welterweight contest on April 2, 2022, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Nigel Roddis / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short June 6, 2025 at 11:25am
An English professional boxer with a promising career ahead of her has tragically passed away, revealing the horror that is socialized medicine.
On May 22, the International Boxing Association issued a news release announcing that Georgia Cardinali, formerly known as Georgia O’Connor, had passed away at 25. She had been diagnosed with cancer in January, after seeking treatment for severe symptoms since October.
According to MMA Mania, Cardinali turned pro in 2021 after winning a gold medal at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games and a silver medal at the Youth World Championships that same year.
She was the youngest boxer ever to join the British team when she was 16.
She went on to compile a 3-0 professional record.
On May 9, just weeks before her death, she married her boyfriend, Adriano Cardinali.
News of her death is heartbreaking on its own, as this young athlete had everything to achieve in the sport, but her story is both devastating and infuriating when examined in the broader context of England’s socialized medicine program, the National Health Service.
On Jan. 31, Cardinali made a lengthy Facebook post, detailing how her doctors failed her in not diagnosing her cancer sooner, despite many warning signs and high risk factors.
WARNING: The following contains strong language that some readers may find offensive
Cardinali detailed the months leading up to her diagnosis, saying she knew something was wrong before her doctors discovered it.
Is socialized medicine to blame for Cardinali’s death?
“For 17 weeks since the start of October, I’ve been in constant pain, going back and forth between Durham and Newcastle RVI A&E knowing deep down something was seriously wrong,” she posted.
“I said from the start I felt it was cancer. I KNEW the risks. I have colitis and [primary sclerosing cholangitis], two diseases that dramatically increase the chances of getting it. I KNOW how high my risk is and they do too. They always did,” she wrote.
Her doctors ignored and discounted her fears.
“[N]ot one doctor f***ing listened to me,” she continued. “Not one doctor took me seriously. Not one doctor did the scans or blood tests I begged for whilst crying on the floor in agony.
“Instead, they dismissed me. They gaslit me, told me it was nothing, made me feel like I was overreacting. They refused to scan me. They refused to investigate. They REFUSED to listen. One even told me that it’s ‘all in my head.’
“And now? Now the cancer has spread,” she said.
Cardinali went on to further criticize her doctors, but also mentioned how poorly the NHS functions.
“If they had listened to me in the f***ing first place, they could have caught it earlier. They could have done something before it got to this stage. But they didn’t. Because this is the state of the NHS — a broken system that fails young people like me over and over again.
“A system that makes people suffer, that sends them home in agony, that lets cancer spread whilst the thick, stupid, mindless ‘doctors’ shrug their shoulders.”
These doctors utterly failed Cardinali.
Boxing world mourns loss of Georgia O’Connor after miscarriage, cancer battle: ‘Loved, respected, and admired’ https://t.co/9f6wlVltsm #FoxNews That’s socialized medicine for you
— Lori Greene (@LoriGre07158889) May 23, 2025
All the signs were there, but where was the incentive for these doctors to listen?
For years, patients in the U.K. and other countries have been experiencing the horrors of socialized medicine, dealing with incompetence and denied or delayed care that has cost many lives.
This young woman should be training and fighting in the sport she loved.
It’s just another case of socialized medicine lacking the initiative to actually help people.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
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