They are right, in UK she would be eligible for the surgery for free. It would only take a year or two on the waiting list, and if she was still alive, and if the tumor had not metastasized, and if she had a competent surgeon and if the hospital wasn't a third world hellhole where infection and neglect ran rampant, then she would have a fighting chance.
As Churchill said on the eve of D-Day--"the terrible if's accumulate."
:-) Good one. Exactly right.