"Diagnosis: Aggressive lung cancer with metastases": According to a report, a medical practice in northern England scared a number of patients unnecessarily with this message shortly before Christmas, because it was accidentally sent instead of a Christmas greeting.

As the newspaper "The Sun" reported on Thursday, numerous patients at a practice in Askern near Doncaster received the SMS with the cancer diagnosis just before the holidays.

Shortly thereafter, another SMS followed with an apology: the diagnosis had been sent "by mistake".

"Our message to you should be: We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year," wrote the practice, which initially did not comment on the case when asked.

Many of those affected reacted angrily.

Carl Chegwin posted a screenshot of the text message to Facebook, writing, "Another big mistake by crappy doctors." Another user wrote, "Everyone in Askern got this message!"

According to The Sun, among the text message recipients was 57-year-old Chris Reed, who was actually awaiting the results of a lung cancer test.

Reed told the newspaper he immediately tried to call the practice, but the phone was always busy.

So he went to the practice himself, where he learned that his tests were negative.