THE family of Redditch schoolboy Callum Cartlidge is calling for answers after a post-mortem revealed he was suffering from a serious illness, despite medics allegedly repeatedly failing to spot the condition.

The eight-year-old had Addisonian Crisis, a lifethreatening illness, requiring immediate emergency treatment that can develop when Addison’s disease is left undiagnosed.

Addison’s disease is a long-term disorder where the body does not produce enough steroid hormones.

His mother Stacey Cartlidge said: "I 100 per cent think that Addison’s should have been picked up as soon as I took him the GP in January.

"He was going to the doctors more than once a week to be told it was a viral. We were taking him three times a week some weeks."

Callum also had many of the symptoms of Addison’s disease.

Stacey added: "He had achy legs, pale skin, sunken eyes, black body parts, he was always tired and went off his food."

Addison’s disease can be diagnosed with a simple blood test.

Callum was taken to his GP on February 28 where he was diagnosed with tonsillitis and stomach ache.

On March 2, Callum visited his GP who was concerned and called an ambulance.

He was taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital but was discharged after eight hours. On March 3, he stopped breathing.

Ambulance staff reportedly asked to go to Redditch’s Alex Hospital, two minutes away from his home, but were instead sent to the Worcestershire Royal in Worcester.

They arrived in 23 minutes but Callum died.

Following the death hundreds of people marched through Redditch to highlight controversial health care changes for Redditch and Bromsgrove families.

Campaigners said they wanted to highlight service cuts at the Alex.

An inquest into Callum’s death will be heard at Stourport Coroner’s Court on June 28.

NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust offered condolences to the Cartlidge family.

Both said they could not comment until after the inquest.