My wife Jemima was first diagnosed in June 2016. It was all a bit of a shock for us both. After going to her GP and then having a scan, she had to have an operation to remove what they first thought was just a large cyst. A few days after the operation, Jemima got a call from her gynae surgeon to give her the news that it “wasn’t benign but wasn’t malignant either”. I watched as she wrote the word "Cancer?" and "Oncologist referral" on a piece of paper as she spoke on the phone and I just felt myself freeze.

Jemima did quite a lot of research based on the information she had been given and was quickly referred to a gynae oncologist. She suffered some complications following the first operation. This, coupled with the diagnosis of a "borderline mucinous tumour", meant that she was back in theatre only 6 weeks later, this time to have the affected ovary removed, along with her fallopian tube and appendix. She also had biopsies taken. Fortunately, she was staged 1a and remarkably did very well after her back-to-back operations. For two years she had 3-monthly reviews and 6-monthly scans and I’m pleased to say that in August 2018, she moved onto annual monitoring.

We are lucky that there seems to be no lasting physical side effects from her treatment and if anything, this experience has brought us closer together.

It is safe to say that we are both aware of how fragile our health can be and that because Jemima didn’t have full completion surgery (due to her age at diagnosis of 33), there is a small chance it could return. Despite this, we enjoy life to the full and are very active. We enjoy a lot of travels abroad as that is our passion and we try not to let those bad thoughts of things returning creep in. My understanding is that it is quite rare to have this type of tumour, and in someone so young, but the information provided by Ovacome really helped both of us gain some understanding of what was going on. I know Jemima is also an active member on the forum and has not only had lots of support but also offered advice to women who find themselves in a similar situation.