11 WOMEN EVERY DAY...

That's the shocking number who die from ovarian cancer in the UK, with thousands more diagnosed each year. Knowing the signs could save your life

- VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH

Ovarian cancer is the 6th most common cause of cancer death in women in the UK*, yet most women wouldn't be able to recognise the key symptoms** - the most common being tenderness in the tummy, bloating and a reduced appetite. This Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, we speak to two women about their experience of the disease and its impact on their lives.

‘I was lucky it was caught early’
Claire Mckay, 40, is a teacher from Hampshire.

Clutching my side, I winced. It was September 2014, and I was at my teaching job, in the middle of a lesson. I'd had a nagging pain in my side for weeks and it was really getting me down. I'd been having really heavy periods lately too, and felt extremely bloated. Living with type 1 diabetes, I always went to my GP when my body felt slightly off, and when I told her about my symptoms, she referred me for an ultrasound.

MORE TESTS

At my first scan that October, I was so anxious when a consultant told me I’d need a more detailed MRI scan. Still, cancer wasn’t on my mind. At 31, I was fit and healthy, so it just didn’t occur to me that it could be anything sinister. ‘It’s probably nothing,’ I reasoned to my mum, telling her about it on the phone.

One week later, in November 2014, I was given another appointment to discuss my results. ‘You have a cancerous lump on one of your ovaries,’ my doctor explained. The words seemed to echo in my head. Cancer. How could I possibly have cancer? I knew very little about ovarian cancer, only that it was something more commonly experienced by older women, not 31-year-olds like me, and as far as I knew there was no history of it in my family.