'I barely had symptoms but my tumour was 6cm – don't ignore smear test invites'
In September last year, Sky Sports presenter Jo Wilson, 37, told OK! she had stage 3b cervical cancer. She said, “I said to the doctor, ‘Am I going to die?’ ’You’re not going to die,’ he reassured me. ‘It’s very treatable and it’s very curable.’”
“What scares me most about my cervical cancer diagnosis is that I had hardly any symptoms. But when doctors discovered my tumour it was already around 6cm in size. Initially, the doctor said she thought they’d find it was extra tissue that was causing the bleeding. But then, during the procedure, the mood in the room suddenly changed. “Are you by yourself?” she said. And I said, ”Yes, should I be worried?” She told me there and then I had cervical cancer. She said she could see the tumour.
Fortunately, the treatment worked. But it was a difficult time. My family live an hour away and we were in a different tier system during the pandemic so we couldn’t really see each other – although in an odd way that kept it more normal for the boys because people weren’t constantly visiting. ‘I was worried I wouldn’t see my boy start school’ Danni, 29, from Essex, discovered she had cervical cancer after her first ever smear test…
I was petrified – I was retching and felt sick and didn’t know what to do with myself. My boy’s first Christmas was coming up and I was thinking, “Will this be my last?” It overshadowed everything, it was horrible. I remember standing in the shower and thinking, “My brain’s OK but I just want to get out of this body!”
It’s like having a time bomb inside you. I kept thinking, “There’s only so much they can remove.” I was worried I’d have to have a hysterectomy and wouldn’t be able to have any more children. Now I have a shortened cervix, so if I do get pregnant again, I’d have to have a stitch put in. The whole experience has made me more determined to look after myself. I was concerned that low immunity can trigger cell changes and make it harder for the body to get rid of HPV. I changed my diet so I eat more green vegetables.
“It was such a shock when I discovered I had stage 3b cervical cancer. If I hadn’t acted on my instincts that something was wrong, I wouldn’t be here today, as regular NHS screening for the disease doesn’t start until you are 25 and I was only 23 at the time. In a way, that’s become harder to cope with as the years have passed. At the time you think, “I want to live,” but the reality of going into early menopause has been difficult to deal with. I’ve struggled to find the right form of HRT and it’s weird dealing with something that is supposed to happen to you when you’re 50 at 30!
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