‘I hardly had symptoms, but my tumour was 6cm’
Mum-of-three Donna Bradbury, 39, a primary school teacher from Lincoln, was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the height of the pandemic
What scares me most about my cervical cancer diagnosis is that I had hardly any symptoms. But when doctors discovered my tumour it was already around 6cm in size.
Even more worrying was the fact I was a few months from my next scheduled smear test, and every test I’d had in the past had been clear. But at the end of May 2020, I’d started getting a few signs something wasn’t quite right. I had a lot of discharge, and the GP thought it was bacterial vaginosis. They gave me some antibiotics.
Then two weeks later, I started passing blood clots when I was on the toilet. I messaged the doctor again – it was during the pandemic so appointments were virtual – and they invited me to have swabs and an ultrasound, both of which came back clear.
About a week later, I started bleeding while having sex with my husband Martin, 39. The GP referred me to hospital, but at this stage no one had mentioned cancer. As a result I went to the colposcopy appointment in August 2020 by myself.
Initially, the doctor said she thought they’d find it was extra tissue that was causing the bleeding. But then, during the procedure, the mood in the room suddenly changed. “Are you by yourself?” she said.
And I said, ”Yes, should I be worried?” She told me there and then I had cervical cancer. She said she could see the tumour.
I was close to tears. I think my first words were, “Do I have long to live?” Afterwards, I walked home from the hospital, which was about a mile away. I was in shock. The first thing I did was message my friend who’d been diagnosed with breast cancer four months before. “You’re not the only one,” I said.
“I’ve joined the cancer club.” She called me straight back and I cried and cried.
Luckily when I got home my three boys – Robert, Jacob and Oliver, then aged 13, nine and two – were in the garden. My husband said, “Are you OK?” and I broke down and said, “It’s cancer”. A short time after, my biopsy results confirmed it was stage 2b, which means that it was confined to the cervix but was close to the tissue wall and I went back in for more scans.
I went back in for a few days at the start of the new term at school – everyone including the head and the parents were amazing – and then my treatment started in October at Lincoln County Hospital. It was gruelling. I had five chemotherapy sessions, 28 radiotherapy sessions and then brachytherapy, which is internal radiation therapy. They put metal rods inside you to target the exact spot where the cancer is.
Fortunately, the treatment worked. But it was a difficult time. My family live an hour away and we were in a different tier system during the pandemic so we couldn’t really see each other – although in an odd way that kept it more normal for the boys because people weren’t constantly visiting.
In March 2021 I got the all clear, and
I now have scans every year. When they’re due, I get what I call ‘scanxiety’. It’s a weird place to be in, because I’m in remission but
I’m always thinking it’s going to come back.
I’ve gone into early menopause due to the radiation damage to the ovaries and that’s been hard. I feel shattered and have awful brain fog, so much so that I’ve started taking HRT. The radiotherapy has left me feeling raw on the inside – at one point I got radiation cystitis and it was like having shards of glass inside.
My whole mood now is really about moving forward with life. I’m grateful to be here and although I do have bad days, I remember there are people no longer here who’d give anything to have my bad day. I started an account on Instagram, @my_cervical_ cancer_journey, and it’s my mission to spread awareness.
‘I’m so grateful to be here but I do have bad days’