Courtney Gibbons, 24, was only 22 when she started noticing some strange symptoms, including spotting and pain
A single mother deemed too young for a smear test has told of her pain when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Courtney Gibbons, from Leyland, near Preston, started finding bloodstains in her underwear in August 2021, when she was just 22.
Assuming she was too young for cancer, the mother of two initially dismissed her strange symptoms as being due to her period.
Ms Gibbons, who works in a care home, was working part-time but soon found her symptoms made daily tasks unmanageable.
In October 2021, she started bleeding every time she lifted something heavy or coughed, and had an ‘unknown’ pain in her stomach – all symptoms of cervical cancer.
She even struggled to pick up her three-year-old son Kamiy and daughter Ariah, five, without pain rippling through her stomach, prompting her to seek medical advice.
Mrs Gibbons’ GP wanted to test for chlamydia, even though Mrs Gibbons thought this was unlikely. Her test results were negative.
Medications prescribed to control the bleeding and pain did not work.
Recalling her difficult pre-diagnosis, Mrs Gibbons – who had been vaccinated against HPV, the main cause of the disease – said: ‘The constant stomach pain made it difficult to keep up with my busy life.’
Doctors told her it could be up to ten months before she saw a gynecologist for answers about the NHS.
Her GP told her there was a nearby private hospital that occasionally had space for NHS patients.
Courtney Gibbons pictured (center) with her children Ariah (left) and Kamiy (right), thinking she was ‘too young’ to get cervical cancer
Desperate for answers, Mrs. Gibbons called and begged for a free appointment. Luckily the hospital had a cancellation and she was able to go for tests and a cervical scan the following week.
As Mrs. Gibbons left, the doctor told her, “I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
Still, she was hopeful that it “might just be nothing,” adding that she was “too busy” to worry about reality.
A few days later, she was heartbreakingly diagnosed with cervical cancer while out and about with her two children.
Recalling the moment she heard the news, Mrs Gibbons said: ‘For a few seconds I couldn’t process her words.’
Her doctor reportedly told Ms. Gibbons before her surgery that the cancer may have been developing for years
Mrs Gibbons pictured (left) after her operation to remove her uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes, appendix and lymph nodes. Ms Gibbons, pictured (right) with her scar, says her diagnosis was a ‘wake-up call’ and she believes if she had been screened in her early 20s, doctors might have caught the cancer sooner
Unable to bring herself to tell Kamiy and Ariah the painful truth, she instead told them that she had a “little man named Frank” in her belly that “made me feel a little bad.”
Doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to Mrs Gibbons’ fallopian tubes and appendix a month later.
She was told that the cancer had been “developing for years,” but she explained that she “didn’t have time to worry about it.”
Ms Gibbons had her uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes and appendix removed in a four-hour operation in September 2022, a year after she first noticed symptoms.
Doctors wanted to take a “less invasive approach,” but because the cancer had spread so far this was “no longer an option,” she said.
Before the treatment, the surgeon noted that Mrs. Gibbons was the youngest person they had ever seen with this condition.
Mrs Gibbons said: ‘When I woke up there was no one at my bedside. My family was all busy with work or taking care of my children.
‘Although I was dizzy and sore, the medication eased the pain.
‘I had to stay in hospital for a week, followed by another six weeks of bed rest.’
At home, her children helped her with household chores, but she still struggled to rest.
She said: ‘I was meant to be on bed rest for two months but that was a difficult rule to follow.
‘In just over a week I was cleaning my house and making breakfast pancakes for the kids.
“Even though there were tears of pain in my eyes, I knew I had to keep going.
‘When it was time for the school run, I wrapped my stomach in cling film to protect it.
‘What was normally a 20-minute walk was now a painful trudge of an hour.’
But gradually she started to get better, her scar healed and her doctors told her she was in remission.
During Mrs. Gibbons’ recovery, her children helped her with household chores, but she still struggled to rest and take her children to school. But gradually she started to get better, her scar healed and her doctors told her she was in remission
The 24-year-old is now campaigning to lower the age for HPV screening from 25 to 21
Mrs Gibbons said: ‘Over the next few months I came to terms with my new body. I had to learn to love my scar and accept that I could no longer bear children.
‘It really had an impact on my sense of femininity, and I didn’t want to exclude having children one day.
‘Thankfully the NHS offers some support with egg freezing and surrogacy.’
Her diagnosis was a “wake-up call” and she believes that if she had been screened in her early 20s, doctors might have caught the cancer sooner.
Now, almost a year after her operation, she has started a campaign to lower the age for HPV screening to 21 years old.
Women aged 25 to 64 are invited for regular smear tests as part of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme. This is intended to detect abnormalities in the cervix that, if left untreated, could develop into cervical cancer.