Gemma’s smear test warning after new mattress led to life-changing cancer diagnosis
THE 30-YEAR-OLD HAS SINCE RECOVERED BUT ADMITS SHE LEFT TEST REMINDER ON FRIDGE
GEMMA Brown was 26 years old, enjoying life with her new career and was in love – but months later she would be undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Her screams could be heard down the hospital corridors as she underwent a gruelling brachytherapy, in which small pieces of radioactive material are put inside the body to kill cancer cells.
She said: “Honestly, I cannot even start to describe the pain. My parents and partner could hear my screams in the waiting room on the ward. The worst pain I have felt in my life. How I made it through I still don’t know.”
But she made it through and Gemma, from Burton, who is now 30 and a care adviser at Scarsdale Vets, has been cancer-free for three years and is highlighting the importance of women booking their smear tests.
Her story started in September 2017 when she and her partner bought a new bed and memory foam mattress.
She said: “As the weeks go by, I started to get backache which didn’t seem to be improving which I put down to the new mattress and brush it off every time. My mother asked if I’m okay and I said I was fine, it’s the new bed, my body’s still adjusting to it.”
Then Gemma started “spotting”, which became heavier, and she was “popping painkillers like they were going out of fashion”.
Gemma was asked by the doctor if she had had a smear test.
She said: “I said no. I had a letter through the post but haven’t got round to sorting it yet, as you do, stuck on the fridge for months.”
Her smear test came back with abnormal results. Following more procedures, Gemma was given the shocking news that she had cancer.
She said: “I can’t even start to explain even now today that feeling, that overwhelming shock that hasn’t quite sunk in properly that I have just been told I have the big C.
“Emotions were flying everywhere and the doctor told me it’s a rare form of cancer that they haven’t ever seen before and they referred me to Royal Derby Hospital to be seen by more advanced doctors.”
Gemma had stage 2b “Basal cell carcinoma” of the cervix. She was the first person at the hospital to have this form of cancer.
During her initial treatments, Gemma was given the option to have her eggs frozen but was told it could disturb her tumour so she took the heartbreaking decision to never have children.
She then underwent five rounds of chemotherapy, 25 rounds of radiotherapy and two brachytherapy treatments.
She said: “So now I was faced with the hardest five weeks of my life. I was not prepared with what
was to come. The days and hours spent hooked up to monitors and having drugs pumped through me day in day out, the sickness, the pain, the tiredness, the loss of appetite.
“Finally, after four weeks, I had somehow made it though the chemo and radio. Next up was brachytherapy. Now I had never heard of brachytherapy and wish I never googled what was to come.
“So for two days solid I had to lie on my back with rods inside me while direct radiation was blasted up to the tumour directly.
“With this came risks which I was asked at the time. Would I rather have a higher dose and it potentially affect my bladder and bowel in the future or have less of a dose and it might not kill the tumour? So I opted to kill that b ***** d and suffer the consequences after.”
While Gemma received the news the treatment had worked and she was cancer-free, she still suffers the life-changing side-effects three years on.
She said: “I went through menopause at 27 years old and at 30 years old now I am just coming out the other side. I can’t hold my bladder or my bowels. I experience hip pain where the tumour was. My joints are weak. I don’t have the energy like I used to.
“So many side-effects I now live
with on a daily basis but I am so lucky to be alive and so grateful for the Royal Derby Hospital for their support and work they do.”
During her treatment, Gemma was lucky enough to benefit from Willow Foundation, a charity that provides special days for seriously ill 16- to 40-year-olds.
Gemma spent a night at Callow Hall, near Ashbourne, and enjoyed it so much she has now embarked on a fundraising mission to support the charity.
She will be skydiving 14,000ft on October 16 to raise at least £3,000.
She said: “I wanted to do a skydive before but because I had put on so much weight due the steroids, I was told I was too heavy but I then lost three stone in 12 months. I just thought that before all this I wasn’t a daring person but since I have been through this treatment nothing scares me anymore.”
Gemma’s fundraising page can be found at www.justgiving.com.
She also offered the following advice for women everywhere. “To all you dads, mums, partners and family and friends out there, this to remind all your lovely ladies to go get a smear test.
“Don’t do a me and leave it on the fridge and keep saying, ‘I’ll sort it when I get round to it.’ A smear takes five minutes and is not painful – it can save your life.”
Don’t do a me and leave it on the fridge. A smear takes five minutes and is not painful - it can save your life. Gemma Brown