I thought I was pregnant ..it turned out to be cancer
Actress Rosa Hesmondhalgh tells of her shock at what a hospital scan revealed after her belly doubled in size
Awoman found out she had ovarian cancer – after becoming so bloated that her friends told her she must be pregnant.
The 15cm tumour caused Rosa Hesmondhalgh’s belly to double to 60 inches in less than a month.
And everyone she spoke to agreed it looked like a pregnancy.
But when the pain prompted her to visit A&E in January, Rosa was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Germ Cell Tumour – which had caused the build-up of fluid around her gut.
The actress had to have it drained, followed by removal of an ovary and fallopian tube.
Rosa, who was declared cancerfree in June, said: “I had this huge stomach. Friends joked about how I looked eight months gone.
“When I finally got tested this huge mass came up on the ultrasound – even I thought maybe I’d had a pregnancy that went wrong.
“To be told it was cancer was an utter shock. At 23, I was young and fit – the last person you’d expect to fall so ill.”
Rosa is sharing her story to raise awareness about the disease and its symptoms. She said: “I want others in my situation to recognise it early.” When Rosa first noticed bloating in December, she put it down to festive weight-gain.
She said: “I’d just graduated drama school and was finishing my first professional tour – and my costume no longer fitted.
“I told myself it was inevitable at Christmas, went on a fasting diet and did yoga every day.
“I went to a walk-in centre to see if anything else was wrong and was told I was probably constipated or had trapped wind.”
But by the end of January, her waistline had doubled in size.
Rosa, of Finsbury Park, North London, said: “I remember getting