Mum survived cervical cancer after disease caught by routine test
Cervical cancer: Expert discusses 'main symptoms' of condition
A mum-of-two who survived cervical cancer is urging others to attend their cervical screenings, as it could save their lives.
Esther Stevens, then aged 40, had the “biggest shock of her life” after a routine smear test in January 2020 led to a diagnosis of the disease.
Specifically the test detected HPV and high-grade CIN3 cells in her cervix, leading to a referral for a colposcopy – a test that takes a closer look at the cervix.
During this medics carried out a loop electrical excision procedure (LLETZ), which is a common treatment to extract abnormal cells in the cervix.
Over the next 18 months Esther, from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, underwent surgery to remove two ovarian cysts and her fallopian tubes, as well as two more LLETZ procedures.
Having previously just finished a degree, started a new job and moved into a new home, Esther’s life was looking “perfect”.
But in August 2021 Esther attended what she thought was a routine consultation in her community hospital.
She told The Mirror: “My world was perfect, then the universe decided to punish me.
“As lovely as summertime is, I now associate it with the worst news ever.”
She continued: “I thought it was just part of the aftercare and I wasn’t worried about anything.
“I told the consultant that I was waiting for the results from my latest procedure.
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“I remember her face vividly and I will never forget her words. She said, ‘I’m really sorry to say this, but you’ve got cervical cancer’. It was a very surreal experience.”
Esther immediately rang her husband Wayne to tell him the news and that afternoon the couple attended an appointment with a doctor and Macmillan nurse, who said they were “confident” she could recover.
In the next month Esther was booked in to have a radical hysterectomy to remove her uterus, only to learn the tumour had spread to her lymph nodes.
In her distress she found solace in other cervical cancer survivors she found online.
“It meant I’d need to have chemotherapy, radiotherapy and acutherapy. I was absolutely devastated,” Esther recalled.
“That was when I reached out to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust,” she said. “I was sat in a hospital bed and I wrote on a forum, ‘I’m scared and frightened, please help me. I’m drowning and at rock bottom’.
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“Within a minute, I had 20 messages from women who had survived cervical cancer reassuring me.
“They had been there and got through it. It was a huge relief and turning point. I was spiralling out of control and they calmed me down instantly.”
Esther underwent seven weeks of intensive treatment with radiotherapy five times a week and chemotherapy once a week.
She said: “I had to use my energy and sheer stubbornness to fight because I was determined to live for my boys.”
As a result of the chemotherapy, Esther started to haemorrhage, but because she had coronavirus, she couldn’t go onto the oncology ward.
“I remember bleeding and feeling like I was going to die in hospital alone, without my children knowing,” she said. “It was a very lonely and dark place to be.”
Luckily Esther was able to pull through and went on to have brachytherapy, which uses radiation to destroy cancer cells.
In April 2022 she was finally given the good news that there was “no evidence of the disease” and got to ring the bell on the cancer ward.
Now Esther is urging others to attend their cervical screenings. “A smear test is the first indicator that something isn’t right,” she explained.
“In 2017, my results were completely normal, then three years later, they weren’t. So you cannot miss a cervical screening.”
All people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 will be invited by the NHS for regular smear tests via a letter.
If you have lost your letter or think you never received one you should call your GP surgery.
Cervical cancer doesn’t always present with symptoms but it can cause:
- Vaginal bleeding that’s unusual for you – including bleeding during or after sex, between your periods or after the menopause, or having heavier periods than usual
- Changes to your vaginal discharge
- Pain during sex
- Pain in your lower back, between your hip bones (pelvis), or in your lower tummy.
If you experience symptoms you should speak to your GP.
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