Casual conversation saved Sharon’s life
IT was just a random conversation, a bit of chit chat at a function.
For Sharon Learmonth, though, it became something much more important – it saved her life.
It prompted her to get a long-delayed cervical scan and just caught her cancer in time.
Now Sharon, 47, is speaking out as an awareness week kicks off amid concerns over falling numbers of women attending crucial screening.
“You get invited for a smear test every three years but I’d been naughty and missed two, just busy really,” said Sharon, who works for an insurance firm in Glasgow.
“It had been about six years. I’m sure I’d still have done nothing if I hadn’t been talking to this woman. I don’t know her well, but she told me how her daughter had been diagnosed after a smear test.
“It must have taken a bit for her to share something as personal as that but I’m so grateful she did.
“As far as I’m concerned, it really was a lifesaving conversation.”
The next week Sarah called her GP practice to make an appointment for a smear test. Within 10 days she’d been asked back for a colposcopy as abnormalities had been found.
Friends still reassured her that all would be well but her feelings changed as the seriousness of her situation became clear.
“The doctor was fabulous but when she said my case was severe I stopped listening, to be honest. “All I could think was that I had cancer and that I was going to die. I have young nephews and I wasn’t going to see them grow up.
“My mum was terminally ill and my sister and I were the ones looking after her. It was just a horrific time.” Sharon had major surgery to cut away the cancer exactly a year ago, followed by a hysterectomy in March.
But while waiting for the procedure Sharon read about American singer Joey Feek, who died of cervical cancer last March aged just 40.
“Her story was just so similar to mine.
“Any bubble I was living in that everything would be OK burst that day.”
Thankfully the early intervention and surgical skill saved the day and Sharon then found invaluable support through Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.
“It was my lifeline,” she says simply. “At 3am when I’d be sitting freaking out I’d be on their website and their forum. I still go on it now.
“People helped me when I needed it and I can hopefully help someone else.”
Sharon’s now feeling fine and getting regular checks but as the awareness week starts today, the charity says more needs to be done.
The number of cervical cancer deaths has increased by 24% while the number of women attending screening is at a 10-year low. More than a quarter of women invited for screening don’t attend.
“We need increased investment in targeted awareness campaigns to encourage women to take up their invitation for cervical screening,” said chief executive Robert Music.
jostrust.org.uk