I thought I was in menopause, but it turned out to be ‘terminal’ uterine cancer. Now I have defeated the disease

A woman was diagnosed with terminal cancer after believing her symptoms were due to menopause.

Carol Kernaghan, from Frome in Somerset, initially dismissed the blood stains in her trousers and the pain in her hip, thinking she was ‘just going through the menopause’.

But tests in January 2021 revealed that the 63-year-old grandmother actually had stage four uterine cancer.

Doctors feared the disease would kill her, told her it was “inoperable” and urged her to start planning her own funeral.

Yet Ms Kernaghan has since made a full recovery after undergoing immunotherapy – and she said doctors were ‘astounded’.

In October 2020, Ms Kernaghan, a former dementia carer, noticed pain in her hip but put this down to a recent fall.

She also noticed some stains on her pants, which, due to her age and the fact that she was still in menopause at the time, she assumed was nothing sinister.

Menopause usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, but can last up to 10 years.

Ms Kernaghan was working 12 hours a day, carrying on as usual and said the pain ‘wasn’t bothersome’.

But in January 2021, Ms Kernaghan suffered spontaneous bleeding and was rushed to A&E for a biopsy.

Doctors discovered she had endometrial cancer, which had caused the bleeding.

Postmenopausal bleeding, discharge and abdominal pain are symptoms of the disease.

To treat the disease, which affects around 10,000 British women every year, she was offered a hysterectomy.

Tests later showed that the disease, which started in the lining of the uterus called the endometrium, had spread internally.

Ms Kernaghan said: “Once they went in they realized things were a lot worse than they thought.

‘They found it was in my bladder, cervix, bowel and pelvic wall – it was everywhere.’

She added: ‘I was told I was on palliative care – there was nothing they could do, it was inoperable.

‘At first I didn’t want to discuss my funeral because I couldn’t accept it. And when I planned it, it was very difficult and emotional.”

When Mrs Kernaghan, a mother of three, heard her diagnosis, she took each day as it came and was unable to ‘process’ it.

“I didn’t want to know how long I had left either,” she said.

‘But they kept my daughter Jennifer (35) informed and she took me home to review my days.

“That day was the same day she found out she was pregnant with my grandson. I remember thinking I would never see him born.

‘Looking back, it’s amazing that we beat a terminal diagnosis.

‘My grandson is now two, and he is just beautiful. I’m so glad I could meet him.’

Mrs Kernaghan considers every day a ‘blessing’ and explained that although she is now cancer-free, there is no guarantee the disease will not return.

In February 2021, she underwent immunotherapy – a treatment that stimulates the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells – in the hope that it would give her a better quality of life.

Weighing just 40kg, she was too weak to endure chemotherapy.

But doctors were ‘astounded’ by how much the immunotherapy shrank Ms Kernaghan’s tumours.

She said: ‘They couldn’t believe how much this made the tumor smaller and continued to shrink.

‘Fortunately, the treatment has given me more than just quality of life; it gave me my life back.”

Ms Kernaghan underwent surgery to remove the remainder of the tumor and was declared cancer-free in October 2021.

“When I found out I was cancer-free, I just cried. “I couldn’t believe it was over,” she said.

“I just rang the doorbell and cried.”

During treatment, doctors discovered that Ms Kernaghan has a genetic condition called Lynch syndrome, which predisposes her to uterine cancer.

Although she is currently recovering, doctors cannot give her any guarantee that she will not develop cancer again due to her advancing age and condition.

Ms Kernaghan wishes she had known she had Lynch syndrome sooner as she would have had regular check-ups and a prophylactic hysterectomy to prevent her developing the cancer in the first place.

Her children – Jennifer Brown, 35, Samuel Kernaghan, 33, and Chloe Kernaghan, 32 – have discovered they all have the same genetic condition.

“The great thing is it means they’re being screened early so if there’s a problem, it’s caught early,” she said.

Both her daughters have been offered prophylactic hysterectomies and are considering it.

“I think every menopausal woman should be screened for endometrial cancer because it’s so silent,” she added.