With the 21st to 28th January marking Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, one woman has opened up about her experience of the disease.
For 35-year-old Vikki Ellis, encouraging others to attend cervical screenings has become a passion after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was just 25. Over 10 years ago, Vikki was excitedly looking forward to going travelling with her long-term partner Scott when she began experiencing symptoms including lower back pain and pelvic pain.
“I hadn’t heard of cervical cancer until I was watching Big Brother and Jade Goody was pulled off. But when a few years later I started experiencing symptoms, I still didn’t have any information. There was nothing online like there is today. The information out there was almost nonexistent to me,” she recalls.
Having started developing these symptoms at the age of 23, Vikki began searching for answers. Although there are around 3,300 new cervical cancer cases in the UK every year, the mum-of-one found that getting a diagnosis wasn’t easy – particularly due to her age.
“I went to the doctors and I got palmed off with the fact that I was too young to have a smear. I was almost told that it wouldn’t be cervical cancer because I was ‘too young’,” she says.
“On multiple occasions I got sent to STI clinics even though I’d been with my now-husband Scott for years. Every time I was there, it was just humiliating for me because it was almost like they were accusing one of us of having an affair. Obviously those results came back negative.”
Still unsure about what was behind her symptoms, Vikki assumed that nothing was wrong and headed to Australia with her partner Scott, just how they’d planned. Despite having visions of settling down there, the pair returned to the UK in their second year due to an illness in the family – a move which gave Vikki, who’d turned 25 while travelling, access to the NHS cervical screening programme.
“We were doing our second year visa in Australia and we only came back because his grandad got really sick. Otherwise I think that Australia would have been my home and I would have stayed there. I feel like Scott’s grandad almost saved my life because I don’t think we would have come back,” she admits.
Having lived with her symptoms for two years, Vikki headed to her first smear test as soon as she could. However, just days after her appointment she received the news that the test had been inconclusive and a second was required. Following a finding of abnormal cells, she quickly underwent a colposcopy and MRI for further examination.
“Two days later I was sitting in a 7:30am slot with my dad and sister as well as a consultant and a Macmillan nurse. That’s when I was told that I had cervical cancer. I’d had all of these symptoms for two years but it took that long to be heard. It was just heartbreaking,” says Vikki, who was diagnosed with stage 1A2 cervical cancer.
“I was in utter shock. My sister was next to me and she kept rubbing my back. At the end of this whole conversation they asked if I had any questions. I smiled and said I was good – I don’t think I had absorbed what was said to me.
“It wasn’t until I walked outside and the nurse came up to me and gave me a leaflet that said cervical cancer on the front that it clicked. I went back home with my dad and I had to take the day off work. I sat on my dad’s sofa all day and I just cried. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what the journey ahead was going to look like.”
Vikki was subsequently referred to The Royal Marsden where she had more checks before undergoing a procedure to remove the majority of her cervix as well as some lymph nodes in her stomach. The operation was a success and surgeons were able to remove all of the cancer, leaving Vikki with “warrior scars” around her belly button.
Ahead of her five-year check-up in 2020 Vikki held a socially distanced garden party where she raised over £2,000 for charity and cut 14 inches off her hair for the cause. But in the wake of the milestone occasion, doctors discovered something from one of her check-up tests.
“Because it was Covid, I could only go to the hospital by myself so I got into a room with quite a few doctors and nurses. They were talking amongst themselves as if something was there, but they couldn’t get to it. I remember they all left for me to get dressed and I sobbed and sobbed so much in that room. I was terrified,” she explains.
“Then, just before Christmas, they told me that if it was cancer, I needed to prepare myself for a hysterectomy. Thankfully they weren’t cancerous this time, but I was so traumatised that I ended up opting to have a preventative hysterectomy because my mental health had really been affected by the possibility of a future occurrence.”
More than a decade on from her diagnosis, Vikki is using her voice to encourage others to attend their smear tests. With research commissioned by The Lady Garden Foundation finding that 46% of women polled were intentionally putting off important cervical screenings, she is keen to do her bit to raise awareness of the vital nature of such tests.
“I’m stronger than ever. I look back at my ten years and think I’m really strong and I’ve come a long way,” she explains. “My daughter’s only seven but she knows that mummy has been in hospital and she’s been here when I’ve recovered from surgeries. I know full well that she’s so proud of me even doing these and sharing my story.”
The research also found that embarrassment was the leading factor as to why screenings were being purposely skipped, with one in 10 claiming they have put it off due to forgetting to wax or shave beforehand. However, for Vikki, it’s crucial that people take up their smear test when offered.
“I’m such an advocate for everybody to have their smear. I know a lot of people have so many reasons for why they don’t go, whether it’s embarrassment or if they forgot or they don’t have time.
“Even the other day I was messaging my friends and I encouraged two of them, who’d forgotten because they have children, to book theirs. Even if just one person reads my story and thinks ‘I need to book mine’ then I feel like I’ve done my job.”
To help combat some common misconceptions around cervical cancer and to educate people on symptoms and prevention, The Lady Garden Foundation has created a ‘Don’t Beat Around the Bush’ myth-busting guide for women to download from their website
