Cervical Cancer

Interview 24

Because I was then 51 and felt that, well 50½ or whatever I was, 51, (laugh) and I felt I was probably getting menopausal, I thought perhaps that was normal for a menopausal woman so I didn't worry about it. But then over the next few weeks I had some odd, what I thought of as break through bleeding, once or twice after lovemaking and again I just thought well may be this is normal.

And- there was obviously something not quite right I felt, but I still didn't feel it was serious enough to bother going to the doctor because I thought well may be this happens when you have the menopause.

I actually rang NHS Direct because I had had dealings with them a few months before when I'd had sunstroke one evening, I was quite impressed with their help and I asked them what they thought. And it was quite funny actually because I spoke to the same Irish male nurse as I had spoken to with the sunstroke and I thought I'd get put through to a female nurse and he said he'd have to go and talk to his supervisor and phone me back which he did. He said we think you should go and see your doctor and we think you should go and see your doctor very quickly.

Interview 14

I was only, how old was I? 27.

I knew that there was something drastically wrong. And when I came back from holiday my doctor sent me for a colposcopy at the local hospital,

He took the colposcopy and as he was doing this, he called the nurse over to look at the screen and advised the nurse what he could see, I didn’t know what he could see, he then advised me he would be taking a biopsy. So, he took the biopsy and, which I have to say I didn’t feel any pain, and then he asked me to go straight back into his office to go and see him. So, I got dressed, went back into his office, still not suspecting anything sinister, sat before his desk and he told me that I had cervical cancer.

And we didn’t have to wait three weeks for the results, we had to work now.

Interview 22

I think the team at the hospital where I went to were all very supportive and openly communicative. We had open, honest discussions and I think that was really important because we all knew what, they knew what I felt, I knew what they wanted to do and how they felt. And we were just able to talk openly about everything, treatments, diagnosis, I could say what I wanted to the consultant but I felt he listened to me and took my views into consideration which doesn't always happen I know. But the whole team were really good, they worked together with you as part of the team really. So yeah, I think that was really positive.

Interview 13

I just wanted to get over it, I just wanted to sort it out and get rid of it. And because he told me that we caught it fairly early I just wanted to get on with it really.

The whole cancer thing didn't really settle in till, coming to terms with such a big thing until after, way after my operation.

Interview 06

When I went up for the planning day, they, the nurses up there were great, they really were and they told me about the sort of things I should do or shouldn't do as the case may be. And I asked them what I should tell my children. And they said "Well how old are they?" and I said "the younger two are 4 and 5 and the eldest one is 16," and she said "Well what do you want to tell them? And I said "I would like to tell them a little bit because obviously I'm going to be disappearing er every day to come up for my radiotherapy treatment and later on I'm going to have to have some surgery," and at that stage they'd said hysterectomy but I really wasn't quite sure exactly what that entailed. And she said "Well for the younger two just answer their questions, just tell that you’ve got to have, that you've got something wrong with your tummy and you've got to, the doctor said that you need to have some treatment at the hospital, something done at the hospital to make it better." And I said "Will that be enough?" and she said "At that age that's probably as much as they need to know and if they want to know more, they will ask." And as if happened that was quite a good bit of advice, you don't need to go into all the ins and outs with very young children. If they need to know more, they will ask and you can, you can be open and honest with them without lying to them, without frightening them. It's very difficult to get that happy balance but we seemed to manage to do that.

Interview 24

I suppose if a woman is looking at this site because she's just been told she's got cervical cancer what I would say to them is it's definitely not a death sentence if they've caught it now and you're going to go in for the treatment and everything then the chances are that in a year’s time you'll feel exactly the same way as I do now, that it was something that happened, it was a part of your life but it's not, it's over, it's done with and get on with the rest of your life.

Interview 14

I protected my family and probably didn’t tell them everything, whereas with friends you definitely do share a lot more. So, I’d definitely say talk, be positive because even though the diagnosis may be bad it doesn’t always mean what it means in the beginning, it can work out to be a lot, a lot more positive than you think.

Interview 16

I constantly felt that they were hiding something from me. I was convinced that I was riddled with cancer and they weren’t telling me because they didn’t think I had long to live, I might as well be ignorant and make the most of it. Eighteen months later I know that’s not true I don't have cancer in my body and I haven’t had it for eighteen months but I’ve wasted a lot of time being scared to death about it.

Because often what goes on in your head you know, its ten times worse than what is actually going on in your body. There are still too many negative things about cancer and no one ever talks about the up sides, you know the people who do get better, the mythology's still there and you know if you are one of the people that’s gone along believing it like I was, you've got to surround yourself with a lot of people who have come out the other side of it.

Interview 18

I think about it a little now but hardly at all really. It’s not you know it’s; you do get a balance and things get better with time but don’t expect within a year that your, everything’s gonna be fine and you’re gonna be positive. I think everybody’s different and you mustn’t expect yourself to too quickly to get back to normal. And you may do a few extreme things but you’ll get back to your balance and your routine.