A GRIEVING widow has called for more thorough medical checks on service personnel after her Royal Marine husband died suddenly from undiagnosed leukaemia.

Father-of-three Carl Manley, 41, was serving in Afghanistan when he died unexpectedly in September 2012.

A subsequent post-mortem concluded he had suffered a severe bleed inside his brain which was a result of acute leukaemia – a condition he did not know he had.

In the days before his death his colleagues said Captain Manley had been his normal good-humoured self, suffering only relatively minor health complaints, including a sandfly bite that was not healing properly, aches and pains and sores inside his mouth.

However, just eight hours after seeing a military doctor, he was found unconscious in his bed.

He underwent aggressive hospital treatment but his condition worsened over the next 48 hours.

An attempt was made to fly him back to the UK but he suffered a cardiac arrest on the helicopter and died on September 24.

His wife Sheralee, of Herbert Road in Westbourne, told the inquest she was concerned her husband’s previous medical history was not properly documented.

She said he had contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Belize in 2005 but, because he recovered, this incident was not flagged up in his military medical records.

The inquest also heard from the doctor who assessed Captain Manley shortly before he died and recommended he undergo blood tests.

This could not happen instantly because they did not have those facilities at their base.

Mrs Manley said: “I just feel the medical records should be a lot more detailed than they are and the MoD should give these guys thorough medicals.

“My point now is for the other guys now serving.

“There was nothing in his medical records, no record of the drugs he was given in 2005, nothing. That was a significant illness he had in 2005, he could have died from it, whether it was seven years ago or not.

“They’re just farcical, the medical records, I’m afraid.”

She also called for additional blood testing facilities to be introduced.

Dorset Coroner Sherriff Payne said he saw ‘no reason’ to link the illness that killed Captain Manley with his 2005 illness.

“It all appears to be solely related to this sudden leukaemia,” he said.

“This is a natural disease which I don’t think could have been predicted.

“The evidence is quite clear that he died of natural causes.”