A STUDENT was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after doctors dismissed her as being anxious and dehydrated. Molly Smith started to feel numbness in her hands and feet, but initially didn't think it was anything to worry about. She waited a month before seeing her GP, who advised that her strange symptom was likely due to anxiety or simply not drinking enough water, as she was otherwise healthy.

But Molly, then 20, knew deep down it was something more serious. "The numbness was so bad that it was affecting my ability to walk and dance, and I wasn't sure if I would get the feeling back," she told Newsweek . "I knew in my gut there had to be an explanation, and I was going to do anything in my power to figure it out.

" Molly, a student at Yale University, then spent months visiting different doctors to try to get to the bottom of her condition. She received an unofficial carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis - where pressure on a nerve in the wrist causes pain and numbness in your hand and fingers - but still wasn't convinced, so asked to see a neurologist. After several more months of back and forth, an ultrasound identified an ovarian cyst - a fluid-filled sac.

At first, Molly was told it was benign and that she should wait three months to see if it went away on its own. But at the age of 21, following further testing, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Molly, from New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States , wrote in a blog post for Yale News : "I received a phone call that chan.