Stevie Davis has detailed her experience of overcoming several major battles in her life including those with cervical cancer and an addiction to the painkiller co-codamol
A woman who survived cervical cancer has said she had to go through a secondary battle after she developed an addiction to painkillers.
Stevie Davis, 36, was diagnosed in cervical cancer in 2014, a diagnosis that saw the subsequent removal of both her cervix and lymph nodes.
When the cancer returned for a second time Stevie had to have a hysterectomy and have womb and ovaries removed as well. It was following this second round of operations that she was proscribed the opioid co-codamol.
While co-codamol is an effective killer of pain in the short term, it can sometimes lead to dependence if used in the long term. It was this dependence that Stevie tragically developed as she began taking it for longer than prescribed.
What followed was a seven-year battle with co-codamol addiction, one she said she hid from friends and led to her spending £200 a month and consuming 20 tablets a day. By the end of her ordeal in 2025, thanks to consulting a pain management doctor at the start of the year, Stevie had spent £16,800.
Following her battle with co-codamol addiction, Stevie has decided to speak out and raise awareness of the side effects she experienced and how people can survive the addiction just as she did.
Stevie, from Shroud, Gloucestershire, spoke about the stages that led to her original addiction. She said: “They found out I had endometriosis at the same time. They treated it surgically so I needed no chemo, no radiotherapy.
“I was put on codeine just to recover from the surgery. I had been on it a couple of times but only for two weeks, I never really thought anything of it. The pain was getting worse and I kept going back to the doctors so I ended up on a repeat prescription.
“I had a smaller surgery [after 2018] and even after the surgery the morphine wasn’t helping. They brought in the pain management team and she said ‘you are dependent on opiates’.
“It’s quite scary, I hid it really well. I had spoken to my partner, my mum, my best friends and they said they thought I might be taking too much but didn’t realise you can get addicted to it.”
Stevie also said there were times during her battle she would try to quit, but renege on that decision within hours. She explained: “I kind of knew deep down for a long time that I really had a problem with it.
“It’s like with every addiction, I’d think from Monday ‘I’m not going to take it’ and then you get a couple of hours in and think ‘I don’t have the willpower for this’, so I did that for about a year.”
However, Stevie says she feels a lot better now she’s gone cold turkey from the opioids and now spends her time raising awareness and trying to help others in similar positions.
She said: “I saw the pain management doctor and the way he dealt with the conversation really hit home, he was amazing. I booked two weeks off work and I just thought ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’ and went cold turkey.
“I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody, it was awful. Restless legs were horrific, I didn’t sleep for about two weeks, going to the toilet a lot, being sick, just sweating through the night.
“Mentally I went into a bit of euphoria, mainly because I couldn’t believe I was doing it. I had a bit of a crash 30 days in and the anxiety and depression hit me. I reckon it lasted for about a month or so, around May I started to feel a little bit more normal again.
“Life is just a million times better, just waking up with a clear head is such a novelty. It’s so worth going through what you have to go through to get here. It’s really difficult and you really have to do the work and continue doing the work.
“My biggest advice is just talk to someone, anyone, just speak it out loud, and the addiction loses its power.”
What is co-codamol?
According to the NHS co-codamol is not one drug, but two separate drugs mixed together. They explained: “Co-codamol is a mixture of 2 different painkillers – paracetamol and codeine. It’s used to treat aches and pains including period pain, muscle pain and toothache.
“It may help to take co-codamol if everyday painkillers, such as ibuprofen, aspirin or paracetamol on its own, have not worked. This medicine comes as tablets and capsules, including soluble tablets that you dissolve in water.
“It’s important to take co-codamol as your doctor has asked you to. This is particularly important because co-codamol can be addictive….If your doctor has prescribed co-codamol for you, they’ll tell you how long to take it for.”
If you or somebody you know has been affected by this story, contact Talk To Frank for free, confidential advice on 0300 1236600, texting 82111 or visiting their website, Honest information about drugs | FRANK