KATY Stephenson, 49, is an estate agent. She lives in Bury St Edmunds with her husband Patrick, 56, an architect, and their children Jack, 18, and Tilly, 15. Sitting in the consultant’s office, I looked at the nurses either side of me in total disbelief.
The grave-faced doctor had just told me I had ovarian cancer , and I couldn’t believe it. Was I going to die and leave my two children, then 15 and 12, to grow up without me? It was January 2021, and a month earlier I’d gone to A&E after having pain in the right side of my stomach. Blood tests, an ultrasound and a CT scan revealed I had appendicitis and showed cell changes in my ovary and fallopian tubes.
Three days later, my appendix was removed and a sample of my left fallopian tube and ovary were taken for a biopsy. One of the doctors said that, while it was probably nothing to worry about, there was a chance it could be cancer . Hearing that word was horrifying.
After five days in hospital, I was discharged, but didn’t hear anything until a month later, when I was asked to come back for my biopsy results. During that time, I’d initially been so anxious, but after three weeks I assumed it couldn’t be serious if no one had been in touch, so I attended my appointment alone. It was there that I was given the devastating news I had stage one ovarian cancer.
It was a huge shock, and while it was an aggressive cancer, it had been caught early. I had visited my GP six months before my diagnosis with a number of sympto.