OF SMEAR TESTS AND HER HOPES OF BECOMING A MUM
web When new bride Sheryl FindlayGardiner got a message from her doctor’s surgery reminding her to book an appointment for an overdue smear test, she was grateful for the call.
She knows now it saved her life.
Working for six months in Hong Kong, getting engaged, planning a dream wedding and then walking down the aisle to marry the man she loved had kept Sheryl so busy that she had overlooked booking the screening she was due.
When she finally went for the routine test, it led to her being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer.
Heartbreakingly, Sheryl, 33, who had been looking forward to starting a family with husband Stewart, 41, was told her best chance of stopping the cancer returning was for her to have her womb removed.
Last week – exactly three months on from the day she was diagnosed with cancer – Sheryl had a hysterectomy.
Now, as she recovers from the surgery, she wants to do all she can to raise awareness of the importance of smear tests.
And she is determined not to let her illness or the treatment she needed stop her from becoming a mum.
Sheryl, who hopes to find a surrogate to carry a baby for her in the future, said: “When I walked down the aisle to marry Stewart, I remember feeling so thankful and so
excited about the future we had planned. I couldn’t stop crying the day after our wedding because I felt so lucky.
“We went off on a wonderful honeymoon to St Lucia and we talked about starting our family. “I remember thinking, ‘I’ll never ask for anything else as long as I live.’
“But then I was diagnosed with cancer and our whole world came crashing down.”
Sheryl, who met Stewart at her sister’s wedding, hadn’t been concerned when she received a letter a couple of weeks after going for her smear test asking her to attend Wishaw General Hospital. She said: “I knew quite a few other people who’d had abnormal results, gone along for further checks and they’d all been fine.
“I went to the hospital with my mum for a colposcopy and, while the test was being carried out, I sensed a real shift in the atmosphere in the room.
“I realised the procedure was taking longer than it normally should and I could see in my doctor’s face that something was very wrong.” The doctor told Sheryl she had found a growth on her cervix that she was 99 per cent sure was cancer. The growth was removed and further tests confirmed it was cervical cancer. To Sheryl’s shock, she was advised that her best hope of beating the disease and ensuring it didn’t return was to have a hysterectomy. Sheryl, a marketing manager with global professional services firm PwC, said: “I got the call on Christmas Eve. Until then, I think I’d been in denial that a hysterectomy was something I might have to consider – it really hadn’t entered my head. “Somehow we got through Christmas. We went to a midnight service on Christmas Eve. We went for a big walk on Christmas morning and we spent the next few days surrounded by our families.
“But, a few days later, everything went dark for me. I’d pictured becoming a mum a thousand times, gently cradling my bump as I wentabout my day. Instead, I was 33 years old and being told I had to give up something so important to me.” Sheryl was advised that if she didn’t have a hysterectomy, there was an estimated 25 per cent chance of the cancer coming back.
She said: “It should have been an easy decision to go ahead with the operation but it wasn’t. We did a lot of soul- searching and there were a lot of sleepless nights.
“I started reading blogs written by women who had been through similar things and lost their fertility to cancer. “People who had been in the exact same position as me, who had courageously faced their fate and still went on to have children.
“I foundfou one blog from a lady whose storyst struck a real chord. She said if the doctor had told me I needed to lose an arm or a leg to give me the bebest chance of my cancer not coming bback, then I would have agreed to it.
“I realrealised I was in a battle for survival and I could only fight one fight at a time. I woke Stewart up at 1.30am and told him we needed to go ahead with the hysterectomy.
“It broke both our hearts but I couldn’t take such a gamble with my life.”
Last week, Sheryl attended Glasgow Royal Inf irmary where she had surgery to remove her womb and rid her of any remaining cancer cells.
Before the operation, she at tended the hospital ’ s Assisted Conception Service for IVF fertility treatment.
She and Stewar t , a butcher, now have f ive embr yos s t o r ed for future use.
Sheryl, of Biggar, Lanarkshire, said: “We’ve not given up on our dream of becoming parents – we’ll just have to build our dream a little differently.
“I’ve been given so much hope by other women who have been through cancer treatment but been able to go on and have their own biological child with the help of a surrogate.
“But for now I’m focusing on recovering from the operation I’ve been through and moving forward.”
Sheryl gained such strength from the online stories of other women who have been through cancer that she has started sharing her own journey through her blog “Sheryl Findlay Said So”, which has more than 2000 followers, including STV reporter Laura Boyd.
Laura has lived with cancer for 10 years and in 2019 became a mum to her daughter Penelope after her sister-in-law became her surrogate.
Sheryl wants to do all she can to raise awareness of the importance of attending screening appointments.
New figures show cervical cancer rates among young women have surged as screening uptake has hit a record low.
Whi le the death of Big Brother star Jade Goody from cervical cancer at the age of 27 in 2009 boosted the numbers of young women seeking screening, that ef fect has worn off.
Fewer than two-thirds are now going for cervical smears, with embarrassment and lack of time blamed for the drop in screening uptake.
Incidence of the disease among 25 to 29- yea r - olds has increased by 54 per cent in the last decade.
Sheryl said: “I didn’t del iberately miss my smear test. I was so busy, I just didn’t get around to booking it and it went out of my mind.
“I’m so grateful to my local doctors’ surgery for calling to remind me. I hate to think what could have happened if they hadn’t phoned when they did.”
Sunday Mail