Sample case studies
This is a small sample of the many case studies Ovacome has
available for the media to work with.
To speak to any of our existing case studies or if you have a
specific request please contact Juliet Morrison on 0778
4652520.
Gillian
Gillian believes that a doctor overlooked her
ovarian cancer over as many as 10 visits: dismissing her symptoms
as a urinary tract infection. Over the course of a year, the
34-year-old quantity surveyor, who lives in Sonning Common,
Oxfordshire, had suffered from blood in her urine and progressively
increased abdominal pain and bloating which, she says, eventually
gave the impression that she was pregnant. But despite presenting
with classic ovarian cancer symptoms, her doctor sent her away with
a series of antibiotics.
"I had started to doubt myself. I'd never really been unwell
before and I started to wonder whether I had become a hypochondriac
visiting the doctor every six to eight weeks" says Gillian.
"Looking back it was as clear as daylight what was wrong with me. I
had the classic ovarian cancer symptoms. In the end, the bloating
got so bad that my stomach was protruding and I looked like I was
pregnant."
During the course of the antibiotics Gillian's symptoms would
improve and blood in her urine would disappear, but after six to
eight weeks she would be back at her GP complaining of the same
discomfort.
Fortunately, a year after Gillian first started having problems
in June 2003, she moved home and her new GP took a different course
of action. He referred her to an urologist, after stronger
antibiotics failed to work. It was then during a scan that it
emerged that her condition was more serious and after a
gynaecological appointment and surgery to remove a cyst the size of
a 23 week old foetus from her right ovary, it was found in December
2004 that she did in fact have stage I ovarian cancer at the age of
29. Gillian's was a granulosa cell tumour and a year after having
surgery her cancer reappeared. She was then given five rounds of
chemotherapy, so intense that it left her hospital bound for three
days at a time, and finally she was given a radical hysterectomy in
January 2008.
"I was told that it was no longer about preserving my fertility,
but about saving my life. I am 34 years old now, have just got
married and would have loved to have been able to start a family.
That is not an option for us now."
Kathryn
Kathryn, who was diagnosed 10 years ago with stage I ovarian
cancer at the age of 40, is an example of the importance of early
detection of the disease.
Kathyrn's cancer - which presented itself as a large cyst on her
left ovary - was spotted during screening for IVF. "I was very
lucky and would probably not still be here if I hadn't had that
scan," says Kathryn. "At the time, I had absolutely no symptoms and
felt well." And while she concedes that screening for ovarian
cancer would throw up some medical dilemmas it would inevitably
save the lives of people like her, who have no idea that anything
is wrong. "Screening is not a magic answer to preventing ovarian
cancer, but it is something which I unquestionably benefited from,"
she says.
Because the cancer was caught at such an early stage, Kathryn
did not have to go through chemotherapy. "I feel extremely
fortunate that not only was my cancer caught at an early enough
stage to be treated effectively, but that I also did not have to
face an early menopause, or the fact that I would never be able to
conceive," says Kathryn. Kathryn was monitored for five years and
fully discharged from hospital in 2005.
Georgina
Six years ago,
65-year-old grandmother Georgina was told that she had a poor
prognosis and may only live another six months.
Georgina, from West Yorkshire, first noticed that she had a huge
lump in her abdomen. She had just returned from a Christmas trip to
Spain in December 2002 before downsizing into a bungalow with her
husband Peter. While away she had suffered from a bad bout of
diarrhoea and had noticed that her abdomen looked swollen and this
continued when she returned home. "I'd been up in the night with
stomach pain after several weeks of diarrhoea and nausea and it was
when I was rubbing my tummy that I noticed what felt like a hard
leather football. I knew at that point that something was seriously
wrong," says Georgina. "Up until the few weeks before this point I
had felt very well. The only thing looking back that was different
was that I needed to pass fluid more often than I normally would
and I had bouts of what I thought were IBS, but neither conditions
made me feel that they were serious enough to seek medical
advice.
Georgina had the most advanced, stage IV, ovarian cancer, which
means that the cancer had spread outside of her abdomen. At a push,
she was told that medics might be able to keep her going for
another three years, with intensive chemotherapy possibly holding
her cancer at bay. But in spring 2009, five and a half years after
her last session of chemo, Georgina has never felt better. Her
CA-125, the blood test which can detect the presence of a tumour,
had fallen from 9,920 to a steady 10 or 11 for the past five years
and she was busy enjoying her five granddaughters, family and
retirement.
Noeline
Being diagnosed with ovarian cancer is relatively rare.
Finding out that you have the disease eight months after your
daughter started treatment for it and while you were working as a
nurse treating patients with the very same disease would seem
almost far-fetched: but this is what happened to Noeline Young, a
58-year-old parent of two from Ringwood in Hampshire.
Noeline Young had been working as a clinical nurse specialist
for gynae-oncology at the Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for
almost a year when in August 2000 she was told the devastating news
that her then 19-year-old daughter Hannah had ovarian cancer. At
the time, Hannah was in her first year at university studying for a
dance degree.
Despite coming into contact with the disease virtually every day
at work, the thought had never crossed the minds of Noeline or her
husband Lester that Hannah's regular stomach pains and vomiting
over the previous two years had anything to do with ovarian cancer.
"She was so young and our GP kept dismissing her symptoms as
Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She would wake up in the middle of the
night in excruciating pain and then in the morning would be okay
again. And so right up to the point of Hannah having a second ultra
sound scan, I'd never thought that her symptoms were anything to do
with ovarian cancer, says Noeline. However, during one particularly
painful middle of the night episode, Noeline decided to call out
her GP and within a week Hannah was booked in for surgery.
The disease had progressed to stage IIIc - one step behind the
most advanced stage - and Hannah had both of her ovaries removed,
along with her omentum and part of her small bowel and bladder.
Three weeks later she started a round of six sessions of
chemotherapy. Hannah, who will be 28 next month, completed the
treatment and has not looked back since. She finished her dance
degree on time, with a 2-1, and has since gone on to achieve a
First in Masters and now works on the production team for the BBC's
Top Gear programme. She has been clear of the cancer since the
treatment.
However, while organising a celebratory end-of-chemo holiday for
the family in Cape Verde, west Africa, Noeline started to have her
own health worries. She had experienced lower abdominal discomfort
for three months, with abnormal menstrual bleeding and urinary
tract infections. "I thought it was all related to stress, but when
I told my GP, because of my history, she sent me straight for a
scan. It showed that I had a cyst on my ovary." This was eight
months after Hannah had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Fortunately for Noeline her cancer was caught at the much earlier
stage Ia and so she did not need chemotherapy. She went on the
holiday and two days after her return was undergoing a
hysterectomy, with both ovaries and the omentum being removed.
Noeline, who has also been clear of the disease since the
treatment, now uses her experience to introduce improvements in
cancer services for cancer patients and is still heavily involved
in ovarian cancer with her work as chair of Ovacome.
Penny
"Falling pregnant saved my life", Penny, a
37-year-old teacher from Northamptonshire and mum to Poppy, age 3,
and Austin 2.
It was during her son's cowboy-themed first birthday party in
September 2008 that Penelope Lang spotted the first signs of the
life-threatening ovarian cancer she was to spend the next six
months battling. Seven weeks pregnant and with most of the guests
still to arrive, Penelope, now 37, began to bleed. At first she
dismissed it. "I'd bled before with my other two children (Poppy,
age 3, and Austin 2) and everything was fine," says Penelope. "We
carried on with the party, but when I was still bleeding on and off
two days later, I knew that something was wrong and that I needed
to see my GP."
Penelope thought that she was having a miscarriage but the
doctor suspected an ectopic pregnancy. It turned out to be much
more serious. The GP referred her straight away to a gynaecological
specialist at the Northampton General Hospital and four days later
she was having key hole surgery to remove a tumour the size of a
small orange on the outside of her right ovary. One week later she
discovered that the tumour was cancerous and within 15 minutes of
hearing this devastating news was signing forms to have a radical
hysterectomy (which included removing both ovaries) in six
days.
The experience has taken its toll emotionally. "It felt so
unreal and it has been such a blur and a roller coaster. At 36 I
was still very young to have this cancer. I used to always think
that cancer was something that happened to other people," says
Penelope. Just over a year after Austin's party and cancer free,
Penelope says that she has emerged as a more focused mum, who truly
appreciates the time she has with her children, living each day
with them to the full.
The now 37-year-old Australian, who has lived on and off in
Britain for 13 years, believes that if she had not fallen pregnant,
then the disease would have become terminal. "I really had no
obvious symptoms and I felt well and fit. If I hadn't been pregnant
I dread to think what might have happened," she says. "Looking
back, I suppose there was one sign that something was wrong: At
five or six weeks pregnant my abdomen looked as if I was three
months pregnant or having twins, but at the time I didn't think
much about this. I now know that persistent bloating can be one of
the signs of ovarian cancer."
Seven months after finishing chemo Penelope is already
rebuilding her life. She has taken up horse riding as a new hobby,
has thrown herself back into amateur dramatics and into a parents'
committee at Poppy's pre-school and she is planning to go back to
work as a primary school teacher. "Every day I am getting more of
the old me back," she says. "Poppy asks me when I will get my
princess hair back, but I rather like the Annie Lennox look for
now."
Hayley
"I went to my GP with sympto
ms of ovarian
cancer half a dozen times in the year before I was diagnosed," says
21 year-old Hayley
Enjoying life to the full as a student nurse, Hayley
Scrowston-Williams says that the idea that she may have had cancer
was as far from her mind as her GP's.But over the year before being
diagnosed Hayley had various symptoms which kept taking her back to
her GP. At the beginning it was back ache, which was put down to
her job and tiredness due to the long hours she was working.
But in the six weeks before being diagnosed things became more
serious, causing Hayley to see her GP several more times before she
was finally sent for tests."My stomach had suddenly become so large
that I had people asking me when my baby was due. I actually looked
nine months pregnant."
At this point Hayley returned to her surgery where she saw a
different GP who referred her straightaway to her local hospital's
accident and emergency department. A scan suggested that Hayley had
an ovarian cyst, but during further investigations it was found
that she had in fact an 11cm tumour which had wrapped around her
bowel. The tumour was found to be malignant and she was told that
she had stage IIIc ovarian cancer in June.
"I felt a bit angry in the beginning that my GP had not picked
up on my symptoms, but to be fair it is not something people my age
usually have," says Hayley. "What it has made me do is to tell all
of my friends about what to look out for and one has actually
demanded to have the CA125 test from her GP to see if she might
have the disease, which is great."
Now in the thick of her treatment Hayley, from Bilston, West
Midlands, is facing a life without being able to have children and
doubting whether she will be able to go back to her original
placement in a delivery suite.
"I find the idea of not being able to have children harder to
accept than I do battling the cancer itself. I've been with my
boyfriend for two and a half years and he has been fine about this
and says that we can adopt, but my friends are starting to have
babies now and I think I might find it too emotional to go back
working in a delivery suite," she says.