A woman is battling a terminal cervical cancer diagnosis after an NHS trust misdiagnosed her test results as constipation several times. Sarah Roch, a 43-year-old mother of two from Plymouth, faced nine years of missed opportunities from 2010 by Derriford Hospital and only discovered she had cervical cancer after a voluntary hysterectomy in 2019. By the time she was diagnosed - which occurred by accident following her hysterectomy - Ms Roch was told she had late-stage cervical cancer .
Ms Roch, who worked at the same hospital which misdiagnosed her, has had to give up her job to have chemotherapy three times a week. She is now calling for greater awareness of cervical cancer symptoms and has urged women to seek a second opinion if they feel something isn’t right. Ms Roch told The Independent : "I want women to be aware of their bodies and to trust their instincts.
If women have unexplained vaginal bleeding, leaking or discharge or pain and discomfort in their stomach, womb or lower back and pelvis, get checked out. “If something doesn’t feel right, please speak up and seek further investigation. No one should go through what I’ve experienced.
” More than 3,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year and around 850 women a year die from the disease – around 51 per cent of those diagnosed will survive for 10 years. According to an NHS report on cervical cancer screening , uptake dropped to a record low of 68 per cent in March 2023 against a target of 80 .