Young cervical cancer survivor willing to share story?

Hi,

 Im a freelance journalist in the UK and I'm writing an article on cervical cancer, with the hope of getting it published in a young women's magazine. I think its really important for all women to be aware of cervical cancer and the importance of getting screened.

I would love to include the experience of a cervical cancer survivor- I think all to often people think 'it will never happen to me', but including real experiences of real women that they can relate to makes it hit home a bit more.

If anyone is willing to share their story then please do get in touch on here or by emailing me on

--Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html--

Thanks,

Rhianna

I'm glad you're doing this. But are you going to discuss the therapeutic medication proving successsful in clinical trials? Nventa has HspE7, CNRS has MVA E2, Roche has the vaccine TG-4001, which has therpeutic properties to clear up dysplasia caused by HPV-16. There are also clinical trials being conducted with other medications, by insitutions such as UCSF or the John Hopkins Medical Institute,

Although it's good to let women know how important it is to have regular exams, you would do women a greater good by letting them know these medications are around, right now. I have been in contact with some of the above-mentioned organizations. One of them said it's very hard to convince people who support LEEP, in particular, that therapeutic medication is necessary. Why? I did research about who was producing and distributing the surgical tools to remove dypslasia, and there were some heavy-hitting corporations, making quite a profit.

In addition, there are a lot of doctors making a lot of money from these surgeries. It's not in their financial best interest for medication to replace surgery, as the first course of action. When I was addressing dysplasia and asked my first ex-doctor and then my second ex-doctor about medication, they either weren't keeping up with their professions or they lied because they wanted to make money from LEEP. But I did not know that Nventa was open for candidates to test HspE7 in clinical trials.

By making the public aware of therapeutic medication, we could have access to it faster. My gripe with gynecology is that it is currently a stagnant profession. It took a big step forward with the development of the PAP smear and other screening methods. But the treatment is still invasive and barbaric, the success rate is still the same, and the recurrence rate is still the same. People like you could help change this.

Something I want to add: If you don't want to report to the public about the therapeutic medication, do you know somebody who would do this? I think this is the bigger story because it will save women's lives less invasively and more effectively for the long term, and most doctors are not telling their patients about this.

 

On 3/19/2009 Rhianna wrote:

Hi,

 Im a freelance journalist in the UK and I'm writing an article on cervical cancer, with the hope of getting it published in a young women's magazine. I think its really important for all women to be aware of cervical cancer and the importance of getting screened.

I would love to include the experience of a cervical cancer survivor- I think all to often people think 'it will never happen to me', but including real experiences of real women that they can relate to makes it hit home a bit more.

If anyone is willing to share their story then please do get in touch on here or by emailing me on

--Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html--

Thanks,

Rhianna

 

I am a young cervican cancer survivor...so far.  I was diagnosed with it on March 28, 2008 of last year...almots a year from the day that I started treatment.  I was a married women of almost 6 years, was happy and had started exercising...I started to hemmorage badly, long story short, I passed out and was taken to the emergecny room.  They discovered I was bleeding to death and needed a 5 unit blood transfusion.  A normal blood level is a 12, you need a transfusion at an 8, I was at a 3.5.  They were shocked I hadn't gone into cardiac arrest.  I could get more involvedand detailed in that part of the story but want to skip some steps for this website.  Long story short, after all the poking and prodding and numerous of invasive test's, I was told I had stage 2b cervical cancer, inoperable.  Since I was continuing to bleed, the option of removing an ovary to freeze it and moving the other one out of the libe of fire was not an option.  Time was of the upmost importance.  I have to have 8 weeks of 8 hour chemo infusions every Monday, External beam radiation 30, times, so monday-Friday for 6 weeks and 5 sessions of brachytherapy(internal surgical radiation) which is just insane...at the end of my treatments my husband decided it was too much for him, cheated and now we are going through a divorce. Anyway, if you are doing a story on this diseas I would love to share my story and talk about it more in depth, about the treatment, how to get through it and how to live with it afterwards.  Ther is life after cervical cancer.  It's tough but if I can get through it...anyone can! 

I'm a 35 yr. old cervical cancer patient/survivor. I was diagnosed in Feb. "08" with stage 1b1. I under went a radical hysterectomy and was blessed with having clear lymphnodes. My oncologist said she thought I'd be fine(thought being the key word) and that I would need no further treatment. I spent a year and a half and 2 Dr's.trying to get a diagnosis for severe bleeding. All pap-smears were normal. While my story is not as tragic as others it is still life altering. I would be willing to share my story if only to show support for other cervical cancer patients.

I am 27 years old and have just been diagnosed with stage 1B1 cervical cancer.  Because of my age and strong desire to have children (I have been married 1 1/2 years and we were just starting to try to conceive when I got my diagnosis), they will be attempting to do fertilty-sparing surgery (radical trachelectomy) on June 1st.  If the cancer has spread to my lymph nodes, I will have to have radiation instead and become infertile.  This is all very scary yet for me, not knowing the outcome. I know I am not a "survivor" yet but I do feel my age and situation makes me more hopeful that they will be able to spare my fertility.