One woman tells her story

“I had increasing abdominal pain for several months. But my menstrual cycle was regular, so my GP thought it was irritable bowel syndrome. The pain worsened and I began to experience shortness of breath, ankle swelling and diarrhoea. I put it down to a tummy bug. At the GP’s, I was given an appointment to return for tests.

“While I was waiting for the tests I suddenly became very breathless. I collapsed in the road and my son had to call 999. In hospital, tests and a scan showed a blood clot in my lungs. While I was recovering the abdominal pain persisted so I had tests for that as well.

“The scans showed that I had something abnormal on my right ovary and my blood tests were abnormal too. But I didn’t know it was cancer until a nurse at the foot of my bed introduced me to staff as having ovarian cancer. I was distraught.

“Because my tumour had spread, I had to have a portion of small bowel removed, as well as a hysterectomy. The worst side effect of the surgery was the sudden onset of the menopause, and I had a course of chemotherapy, which caused side effects too.

“Several years later, I am still in remission. My health is good and I recently graduated from a course that I’d started before my illness. I realise that I am one of the lucky ones.”

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