The first ‘obvious’ symptom I experienced was that I started getting a really watery discharge. It was unlike anything I’d personally experienced before.

There was a lot of it and I started wearing panty liners. This went on for months. I went to the doctor to get it checked. I remember them asking if there was any blood or spotting. At that point I said no, but coming home that day I noticed it was a bit pink and quickly after that it was obvious it was blood. 

I shrugged it off. I put it down to lots of other reasons like having small children, feeling tired and not being relaxed. 

Around that time I began experiencing a dull ache in my lower and middle back. At that point I started to Google (what everyone says you shouldn’t, but you do) and that was when I came across the different gynaecological cancers. I went back to see the doctor. I went back a lot of times. I felt like I was being a hypochondriac. My doctor told me that it was more likely to be a cervical ectropion. She did a small internal examination. 

As the bleeding started to get heavier, my doctor got her colleague, a gynaecology nurse, to take a look. They also agreed that it was cervical ectropion. I was referred to see a gynaecological consultant. At that point I was feeling really tired, more than normal. I wasn’t linking all the dots together at that stage and I still put it down to being a working mum and juggling too much. In my head I was telling myself, “The doctor thinks I’m fine. They said it’s common and something easily rectified.” 

I wasn’t experiencing pain as such, but there was discomfort in my back. It was the same with sex. I started noticing bleeding after intercourse and more spotting. My husband said, “This isn’t right.” My mum encouraged me to go back to the doctor. She said, “Be that pain in the arse and go back.” I think she was noticing how tired I was all the time. 

Between September and Christmas I started to experience more bleeding. What began as occasional episodes gradually became more frequent until, in the weeks leading up to my A&E visit and hospital admission, I was bleeding every single day. I quickly recognised it was not normal or anything I had ever experienced before. 

Before the middle of December, I went online to make my own referral. I was also getting ready to travel to Australia for a month. I wasn’t thinking I had cancer. I was just thinking, “I’m going away for a while,” so I went back to the doctor to ask for something that would help. 

She had referred me for an internal ultrasound where they had a fumble around but couldn’t see anything. I think they were checking for fibroids and polyps. They told me that they didn’t think there was anything to worry about. I felt more reassured. I went for a bikini wax to get ready for Australia. My friend was doing it and knew I was having these issues. I was feeling paranoid about bleeding. While getting this done, I received a phone call where I was told there was no findings in my results. So I went on holiday, trying not to overthink it. I was going to come back for an appointment in February to do some more thorough examinations. I told myself it would all sort itself out. 

On the plane, I had haemorrhages for the whole flight. My mum had thought ahead and brought some larger pads. She was secretly worried and had a feeling this may happen. I was so grateful. 

I now know that you can bleed more in that environment, which I hadn’t bargained for. No medical professional had mentioned this might happen. I went through my pad, knickers, leggings and through to the aeroplane seat. 

When I got back from Australia, I went on a night out at the theatre. I remember standing to get drinks and having this feeling. The only way I can describe it is like someone popping a balloon down my legs. I remember thinking, surely there has got to be more to it than this. My girlfriends whom I was with were alarmed. 

I remember being so wiped out that weekend. That Monday morning I woke up, took the children to school and I was flooded, sitting on the toilet for 20 minutes. It was like someone had turned on a tap. When I got back from school, it happened again. My mum told me to ring the doctors. She said they needed to see me at my worst. 

I got an appointment straight away. My doctor looked and said, “This is a lot of blood,” and that she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. She told me to go home, go to bed, try to get some iron and she would see if my specialist appointment could be moved forward. My appointment was still a month away. 

I went home and slept all day. I should have taken myself to A&E, but I was still telling myself I’d be fine. I didn’t want to take up their time and hoped my appointment would be brought forward. The bleeding settled a little bit, but I would sometimes sit on the toilet for 30 minutes at a time. 

During this period, I had handed in my notice at work because I was so exhausted. Again, I was putting this down to having small children and the demands of a new management role involving an increase in hours, not entertaining the thought I was unwell. At my leaving do, the same thing happened. I felt the pop. I could feel it coming down my legs. That was the first time I really panicked. 

My husband wanted me to go to hospital, but it was Saturday night and I really did not want to be sitting in A&E feeling like that. I made the decision to go to bed and sleep. The next morning I woke up with blood everywhere. My husband took me to A&E. 

At A&E, I feel like I went on a journey of discovery where everything I had previously been told was not what it was. I was admitted with a drip. The team looked at me but needed the bleeding to stop before they could carry out further examinations. Neil stayed with me as much as he could, but I was alone when I was eventually examined the following morning by the gynaecology consultant during his rounds. 

I remember the doctor looking up at me and saying, “This isn’t good.” I asked him what he meant. “I’m really sorry to say this, I think there’s a tumour here, so I’m going to have to do a biopsy.” 

The nurse held my hand and comforted me. She said, “You’re being really brave. I’ve got you.”  

Later that evening, the consultant confirmed that they had found a cancerous tumour on my cervix. My diagnosis was particularly unusual. I had ‘adenosquamous carcinoma of the cervix’, a rarer form of cervical cancer that is not always detected through routine cervical screening in the same way as more common types. 

I had always attended my cervical screening appointments and was up to date with all of them apart from one that fell during pregnancy. I had never been told there had been any concerns or abnormalities. However, after my diagnosis, investigations into my previous screening history revealed that abnormalities had been identified as far back as 2009 but had not been followed up. 

Putting all the dots together was incredibly difficult. My gut feeling months earlier had been right, but you put your faith and your life in the hands of medical professionals and often take their word as gospel. 

Nobody ever expects to be given that diagnosis, especially as a younger woman who had never really had any health issues. I was not at all prepared to hear those words. I know my mum and Neil were not either. 

If I could go back, I sometimes think I did everything I should have done. I did keep going back. I did push. I did tell people something wasn’t right. 

If anything does not feel normal, keep going back. Be persistent. I think we all know our bodies really well. 

I want people to understand the importance of knowing what is normal for them. Cervical cancer does not always look exactly like the symptoms you read about, and screening does not catch every type. If something changes, trust your instincts and keep asking questions. 

It’s about making sure you keep banging the drum. I did, but it still took a little bit too long.