Wednesday 22 January 2025
Maggie's, Highlands
Primary school teacher Cara was diagnosed with cervical cancer at just 33 years-old. Treatment was gruelling, leaving her with two stoma bags and such terrible sickness. She turned to Maggie's and describes the support as "exactly what I needed".
Cara had to deal with the emotional challenge of freezing eggs in the hopes of one day having a baby.
Thankfully, she turned to Maggie’s, where she found support that was “way more than I ever thought it would be".
I had felt ‘under the weather’ for a while. I went to see my GP with a burning pain in my lower back and was diagnosed with IBS triggered by stress.
For quite a significant time I believed I had IBS. I was in so much pain though I was actually off work.
I was up in the night with hot water bottles and I remember thinking ‘if this is what IBS is like, how do people live with it?'
A smear test found abnormal cells and I was eventually diagnosed with cervical cancer in April 2023. I had a 4.5 centimetre tumour.
This time was a bit of a blur, there was a lot of scans and appointments.
You are in a state of survival.
My partner Timmy and I had to decide if we wanted to freeze eggs with a view to starting a family in the future.
We were very lucky as we were able to retrieve 14 eggs on my 34th birthday.
12 of which we could freeze, and if one of those transpires into a little baby that would be wonderful.
I underwent six rounds of chemotherapy and 25 sessions of radiotherapy over six weeks. I also had brachytherapy.
A scan in December 2023 showed there was still something there, but doctors wanted to wait for a second scan. This second scan showed the tumour had grown and I would need an operation.
The surgeons removed my womb, ovaries, cervix, bladder and part of the bowel leaving me with two stoma bags.
You have to hold on to hope, but I kept thinking I was done. That that was me and I could manage. Then all of a sudden, I wasn’t again.
I was horrified by the thought of the surgery. I didn’t realise that it could mean losing my bowel and bladder. I was devastated.That was a really hard day, I kept thinking ‘how did we end up here’.
I am hopeful now though that I will have the bowel re-joined so I only have to live with one stoma.
When I turned to Maggie’s for support, I found a lot more than I could imagine.
Maggie’s was way more than I ever thought it would be.
I got counselling support which really helped me with the conflicted feelings I had, but it was also somewhere just to sit and be with people who understood.
Maggie’s staff were kind and supportive and exactly what I needed.
It is such a calm and accepting place.
I am grateful I am alive and have a fairly healthy body, I will get used to living with a stoma and if we are meant to have babies then we will have babies.
Since August 2024 I have been in recovery, although that’s been far from simple.
I've had partial blockages from scar tissue causing me to vomit up to five times a day until Christmas.
I naively thought I would be back at work by October, but instead I was bedbound.
I also had to come to terms with the fact I will never carry my own children, but hopefully one day there might be some way.
You have to have hope because as soon as you lose hope, what have you got?
Our cancer support specialists, psychologists and benefits advisors are here for everyone with cancer, and all the people who love them.
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