In approximately 1990 I went to the doctors with some abnormal bleeding and I was a bit worried that this was something and the doctor just advised me there was nothing wrong. He examined me and told me basically it was just normal and to go away and forget about it. And because I was quite na’ve at this time, I was only, how old was I? 27?

Well it was before then, this was when I was about 25 and I just presumed this was how things were. And it was only two years later when I started to have a discharge as well as the bleeding that had continued all this time and I changed to a different area, I went to another doctor to see what the discharge was that I was advised to have some tests. And in the meantime I was put on antibiotics and so was my husband to try and clear up the infection, and nothing happened. And I was away on holiday and the infection was so bad that I would wake up in a pool of something, which was rather embarrassing and 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, I would never have children and we didn’t have to wait three weeks for the results, we had to work now.

In about October 2000 I’d had a period that seemed to go on for a very long time, it was dragging on for about two weeks which was most unusual. However, because I was then 51 and felt that, well 50′ or whatever I was, 51, and you know I was, you know 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 then at the end of the November I had another period that again seemed to go on for a bit of a long time and I was a bit concerned but not too worried. And then during the December it started that every time we made love I had bleeding and it was. 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. And I asked my mother and she said she had no idea because hers had happened very suddenly, shed had a D & C and she stopped having periods and my elder sister’s on HRT and most of my friends are on HRT so nobody seemed to know.

And 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 hed have to go and talk to his supervisor and phone me back which he did. And he said we think you should go and see your doctor and we think you should go and see your doctor very quickly.

I suppose one of the very first things I’d say is that I have always, always had regular smear tests, every three years on the dot. I was 18 months between smears. I’d had one that was clear and 18 months later I found some bleeding after intercourse. And I suppose because of working in the NHS and reading things and perhaps knowing more than my neighbour would know I panicked and I thought I’ve got cancer. And my husband was sort of very supportive but he was thinking I was being alarmist and I was diagnosing myself and that I shouldn’t read all these leaflets and I perhaps shouldn’t know too much.”Let’s go to the doctor and see what he says.” So I went along to [my doctor] up at [the surgery] and he referred to me [consultant]over at the [hospital]

Did he do any tests or examinations then?

No, no he talked to me and he referred me over. And it was a very quick appointment, I can remember things happened remarkably quickly. And that worried me as well because not a lot in the NHS happens quickly.

I suppose it was last summer um, but I didn’t think it was anything as serious as this, I went to my GP because in between two periods I had a lot of bleeding. I assumed that it could have been that my pill needed changing or, but to be honest I really expected him to say that it was my age. I mean I was 47, and I thought hes probably going to say it’s the start of the menopause and its gonna get very erratic sort of this kind of thing. Which is exactly what was said to me. So I did, I did go to the GP straight away.

He did point out that there could be many other causes and that when the bleeding stopped, to go back have a proper examination. He changed my pill prescription and miraculously it kind of eased off. It wasn’t particularly the periods that were heavy. It was just the bleeding that appeared in between. And it seemed to sort itself out. Now I believe I was probably stupid. I didn’t go back for the check because it seemed to right itself. It never did go back to normal but with the conversation we had about my age and menopause, etc., I wasn’t overly concerned.

With hindsight I can now see that I was very tired at the time um, didn’t really realise it, I kept eating sweets and buying bags of crisps and things, as if I craved energy. I think with hindsight that was because I was becoming anaemic and it wasn’t until a later date that I realised that. So at first it didn’t seem too, too bad. Um, until one Saturday, now this, this all started probably late Spring and this was oh, um, it was late October, everything had been normal, I got up in the morning and suddenly there was blood just gushing. Then it stopped and stupidly I didn’t think too much of it. You know he said it would be erratic. I went out that evening, I felt fine and it did it again, but this time it was pretty much uncontrollable. Came home, just sorted myself out and realised that I really did need to do something about it.

So I eventually got to the GP in April I believe it was, April and by now I was quite heavily bleeding for most of the month really. And she took some blood tests. Saw that my smear would have been due in about three months time from then so she said shed examine me and do me a smear but because I was still bleeding that day she said ‘We won’t do it today, I’ll take these blood tests and well sort them out and come back next week. So I went back the next week and everything was fine, everything she tested for was OK and she said ‘I’ll do that internal,’ because I was still bleeding this day, if I’d had a clear day by then it was good, I was bleeding most of the time.

And she thought I had a polyp actually, this wasn’t my regular GP, this was another lady, and she thought I had a polyp and referred me to gynaecologist at the hospital. I had a little bit of sort of messing about then because two weeks had went past and I was bleeding, nearly continuously and everything she was giving me weren’t doing any good and then I phoned up the hospital to see when I might get this appointment through and they didn’t even have a record of my letter from the GP. So I was kind of then in the middle, phoning the doctors surgery and phoning the hospital and trying to get something arranged.

And on one of these phone calls I said ‘Just out of interest when, when will I be seen?’ It was still about the end of April, beginning of May and they said ‘Oh, were booking for November, but we haven’t got your letter so it will probably be December. And I thought oh my God. I mean I wasn’t worried because this GP had said ‘I think you’ve got a polyp, its nothing to worry about. But I just thought I can’t bleed until December. You know, its ridiculous. But fortunately I went private, I mean God knows what would happen if I hadn’t gone private. And I got an appointment through fairly quickly with the same consultant who it would have been still under the NHS.