NI women whose lives were saved by cervical screening,
Two Northern Ireland women who believe they owe their lives to getting a smear test share their stories to highlight Cervical Screening Awareness Week. By Stephanie Bell
Mum-to-be Rachel Latham has spent her pregnancy fearful for the little boy she is carrying. Indeed, that she is going to become a mum is in itself a dream Rachel never dared hope possible after coming through four traumatic years being treated for pre-cancerous cells in her cervix.
A former fitness model who now works as a technical sales manager, she lives in Lisburn with her husband Harry (33), an animator.
Rachel (30), who is 25 weeks pregnant, admits to having brushed aside all her invitations for a smear test until she was 25.
“I started getting letters when I was 20 and I ignored every single one of them. It is something you aren’t really taught about and a lot of my friends were the same, we were young and didn’t think it was a real danger.”
When she was 25, however, she had to be treated in hospital for an issue with her kidney. The episode was a wake-up call about her health and as a result she decided to go for her first smear test.
But she was totally unprepared when a few weeks later she received a phone call from her GP’S surgery asking her to come in and discuss the results.
“I had forgotten I had even had the test done when I got the phone call,” she admits.
“The girl asked when could I come in to discuss the results and I asked her to please tell me over the phone as it was obvious it was not good. She told me they had found some abnormal cells.
“I just broke down. I didn’t know how to take it.
“I started crying as I didn’t know what was going to happen. I never thought that it would be me who would get news like that.”
Rachel had grade three pre-cancerous cells, the highest grade, and was just a step away from developing cervical cancer.
She had to go through a procedure to have the cells removed and was devastated when just three months later a follow-up test revealed that the pre-cancerous cells had returned.
She had to be admitted to hospital again to have them removed — and this time there was a complicating factor.
“Every time you go through a procedure they have to cut away a bit of your cervix and I have had to go through it twice,” she explains.
“The second time was heart-breaking. I hadn’t met my husband at that point and I had to make the decision ‘Do I have children or not?’ as during the surgery they don’t know how much of the cervix they will have to remove.
“The minimum amount which would leave it okay for pregnancy is 22mm and they had to take 25mm away from me. That left me not knowing if I could carry a baby or not.”
In the meantime, Rachel fell in love, married and was thrilled to discover earlier this year that she was expecting her first child.
But with the joy came the terror of not knowing whether or not she could carry her baby fullterm.
Being pregnant during the pandemic has added to the pressure as she has had to attend hospital every other week for check-ups.
“I was at a very high risk of miscarrying but thankfully we are doing really well although it has been a hard pregnancy,” says Rachel.
“You do panic, especially with everything that is going on now with Covid and having to go to hospital so often because my pregnancy is high risk.
“Thankfully my baby is perfect and very healthy. The miscarriage risk has passed but now I am at risk of the baby coming before full term.
“I think people don’t realise the long-term impact of it all. It has a domino effect which is what I am going through now with my pregnancy.
“I feel lucky that things are going okay and I am going to be a mum and I can’t wait. I also feel fortunate that I was caught in time, but I’ve still suffered consequences and it is important for people to know that if they don’t get their smear tests they are risking not just their life but their ability to have children too.”
❝ I feel lucky things are going okay and I can’t wait to be a mum