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e you’re suddenly buying estion remedies regularly, e time for a doctor’s visit and hecked out. orryingly, a lack of awareness imited to the women who t be living with ovarian cancer. arch by charity Target Ovarian er reveals almost half of GPS er cent) mistakenly believe ptoms only present in the later s of ovarian cancer. e third of women are waiting than three months for a correct nosis of ovarian cancer, yet every ould be crucial because ovarian er can go from early to advanced s within a year.
Dot now knows that her symptoms are among the most common indicators of ovarian cancer, but just one in five women know that bloating is a potential warning sign.
“Originally my doctor said I might have irritable bowel syndrome and a colonoscopy diagnosed diverticulitis,” she says. “I assumed that was causing my symptoms but I’ve since discovered that IBS is very rarely diagnosed for the first time in over-50s. Life might be very different if I’d been diagnosed two years earlier, when I first went for help.
“After I went to A&E and was finally scanned, five and a half litres of fluid were drained from my stomach and ultimately it was confirmed I had ovarian cancer, with patches all over including my liver. It took a number of weeks to confirm the severity and the waiting was traumatic.
“I would lie there in the middle of the night making up all sorts of things in my mind.”
The diagnosis was incurable, stage 4 ovarian cancer.
“I was told it was treatable, but that isn’t the word you focus on once you’ve heard them say ‘incurable’,” she says quietly. “I felt so sad for Paul and Lucy going through this with me. I also have four grandchildren and my first great-grandchild, Harry, was due in September 2021. I thought I wouldn’t get to meet him.
“I was also terrified of chemotherapy and didn’t know what to expect, but the doctors and nurses were brilliant. After each chemo session I had to inject
myself in my tummy for five days to build up the white blood cells. After the first chemo I felt OK, but by the fourth and fifth I was exhausted. I’d be out of it for two weeks, then have one good week before it all started again.”
Major surgery followed, with 50 per cent of Dot’s liver removed.
She left hospital with 66 staples down her abdomen.
“I felt every bump in the road on the way home, despite Paul driving with the greatest care,” she says.
It took a month before she could even straighten up.
“Having to stand in the bath while Paul showered me was one of my lowest points. To be so weak was dreadful and mentally I was in a really bad way,” she adds. “While I was having chemo I went to a funeral director and booked and
paid for my funeral. Life changed so completely and Paul was the one person who kept me calm and focused – he still does.
“I’m on maintenance treatment now to keep the cancer at bay and every 12 weeks I am scanned and tested and so far, it’s all been good news. I don’t know if I’ll ever relax completely, though I’m looking further into the future and I’ve even booked to take my granddaughter to the theatre in January 2025.”
For Dot, the hardest part of the whole experience has been the knowledge that she could have been diagnosed and treated two years earlier.
“If I’d known that I had all the classic symptoms I’d have pushed more. My doctor should have known though. Don’t accept being brushed off – be a nuisance until you get answers.”
■■Target Ovarian Cancer (targetovariancancer.org.uk) has specialist nurses available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm on 020 7923 5475 for advice on ovarian cancer, including how to talk to a GP who needs to take your symptoms more seriously