Two women talk about their experience of being diagnosed with cervical cancer and warn others never to miss cervical screening tests
WORDS: JOAN MCFADDEN
‘Breaking the news to my parents was awful’
Amy Turner, 49, lives near Liverpool with her husband and nine-year-old daughter. She spent six months believing her symptoms were linked to the perimenopause or being a new mum before discovering she had cervical cancer.
With my three-year-old daughter to look after and my job as a senior member of staff in a secondary school, life in 2018 was busy. That’s my only excuse for missing my smear tests, although I can’t tell you how much I regret that now.
At first, I thought I was experiencing early menopause when I started bleeding after intimacy and in between periods. I also wondered if it was related to the fact I’d relatively recently become a mum. Then, when I started feeling pain in my pelvis and at the top of my thighs, I thought that was because I was going to the gym and trying to look after myself.
I find this quite embarrassing, but the other symptom was a different vaginal odour. You know your own body and, as the months passed, my gut feeling told me this was more than perimenopause. It kept niggling, until one Monday morning I went to the local walk-in sexual health clinic. It was full of kids who’d obviously had a great weekend and were now making sure they had no problems as a result – and me. I couldn’t meet anyone’s eye. When I was called through, I told the nurse my concerns and was instantly ushered on to the bed for a smear test.
When the results came through, I was referred for a colonoscopy to investigate further. Despite having a bad feeling, I desperately hoped I was wrong, but I’ll never forget the doctor saying, “You have cancer,” in May 2018. Everything stopped, like an out-of-body experience and I instantly thought of my daughter. Although my husband knew what was happening, I’m an only child and breaking the news to my parents was awful. Mum wrote me a heartbreaking message saying, “I haven’t given you a card or present but I would swap with you in a heartbeat.”
Sometimes I felt numb about what was happening and, at other times, the enormity of it hit me in waves. I felt angry because I was fit and healthy and had never had health issues. But I also couldn’t believe I’d missed my smear tests and the opportunity to be treated at an earlier stage.
