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Movement And Exercise Are Now A Part Of My Life

I used to think exercising wasn’t for me but now I have the confidence to do it. I know that all movement is good and it’s important not to hold back. Even two laps round your garden goes a long way!

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A few months before I was diagnosed I was trying to lose a bit of weight but then the weight started falling off me very quickly. I was dizzy, I was throwing up and I had acid reflux so the doctor prescribed something to help with that. However, I didn’t get any better and another doctor eventually sent me for a gynaecological appointment. At first they thought I had a cyst but it turns out it was a tumour. I was diagnosed just before my 25th birthday.

I had a month between my ovarian cancer diagnosis and my operation. During that time I couldn’t fully understand what was going on – the tumour had seemingly come out of nowhere and had grown so big. It was stuck to part of my intestines and was big enough to cover one of my kidneys. I was looking for explanations and my brain kept wondering if I could or should have done anything differently growing up. My carer (“mum”) was partly blaming herself, wondering if she should have encouraged me to see a doctor quicker. Would an earlier diagnosis have made any difference? It’s possible that the tumour had been growing since my teens but I had no symptoms; even when I did have symptoms I got diagnosed with IBS. Perhaps I should have had a blood test back then?  

The operation was big – they took out my womb, ovaries, cervix, fallopian tubes and part of my small intestine. I was in hospital for two weeks and after that I was out of work for eight months. I was in bed a lot and I was so tired. I was overwhelmed and my mental health suffered. I found that I needed to surround myself with people because if I sat alone I spiralled into anxiety and depression.

Macmillan referred me to Young Lives V Cancer and then the social worker there recommended MOVE Against Cancer’s online programme. I liked the sound of it and the idea of being supported to move. I was given small exercises to do: we worked on my core and we stretched out my back. My cancer rehab instructor Sophie was very supportive and I started to feel a difference quite quickly during the 8-week programme. We worked on creating different exercises to help avoid leaning on my stoma. I’m still doing the warm-ups and various exercises to help with pain. It’s all given me such a sense of achievement.

Before diagnosis and when I was bigger I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing exercises like this. I’m much more confident now – I’m using links to the online videos and have taken up my Pure Gym membership. The diagnosis and the operation itself were so depressing but engaging in movement and exercise have made me realise what I used to take for granted. Movement and exercise are now a part of my life and it’s the first thing I do in the morning or to wind down before bed.

I used to think exercising wasn’t for me; I was big and got laughed at but now I have the confidence to do it. I know that all movement is good and it’s important not to hold back. Even two laps round your garden goes a long way! I want people to know how good movement makes you feel.

I’m also keen to let teenagers and young women know that it’s important to ask for a blood test if you’ve got symptoms that aren’t clearing, even just as a precaution. It could be diabetes, acid reflux or IBS but the symptoms of ovarian cancer can present themselves as other things and then sometimes it’s too late so why not get checked out in case?