Last year, a car accident left Samantha Bovingdon with pain all over her body, so when she later started having stomach aches, she blamed it on the accident.
But the discomfort didn’t go away, prompting the Adelaide mother-of-three to visit several doctors – before an ultrasound scan finally revealed the cause.
The tests found an 8-inch cyst on one of her ovaries, leading doctors to believe she had ovarian cancer.
Mrs Bovingdon underwent a full hysterectomy on November 14 last year, but it was then realized that the cyst was not consistent with ovarian cancer after all.
A car accident last year left Samantha Bovingdon with pain all over her body and when she later developed stomach pains, she also attributed it to the crash. Mrs Bovingdon is pictured with her children Dakota, 13, Darcy, 9, and Dayna, 3
It was only then that Mrs Bovingdon was given the heartbreaking diagnosis that she had stage four bowel cancer, which had spread to her liver, lungs and stomach.
The distraught 43-year-old asked her doctors: ‘What’s going to happen, how do we get rid of it?’ Advertiser reported.
The answer was that she should receive chemotherapy. She has just completed her second round.
This time, she has been in hospital since January 11 and is finding it very difficult to cope as she cannot spend time with her daughters Dakota, 13, Darcy, 9, and Dayna, 3, during the summer holidays.
“I’m just taking it day by day because I’m stuck with different bits and pieces because of the issues that are going on,” Ms Bovingdon said, adding that her life “just stopped”.
She is now using her horrific experience to call for early testing for bowel cancer.
‘What could have been done to have noticed it sooner? How long have I had it? Where did it come from? Why didn’t my body tell me something was wrong?
‘Why did it wait until then? What was going on? “That’s all going through your mind,” she said.
Her husband Ivan said: ‘It’s hard when you sit there and you can’t do anything. It’s a terrible thing to experience, there’s no other way to explain it.’
Ms. Bovingdon’s good friend Tammy Taylor has one GoFundMe page to help the family and has already received more than 200 donations and raised more than $20,000.
Ivan and Samantha Bovingdon (front) are pictured in their car with their three daughters
‘Sam has not been able to work since her hysterectomy. Ivan has also had to take time off work to care for Sam, take her to her appointments and care for their three beautiful girls,” Taylor wrote.
‘So myself and a few others want to help raise some money to help Sam, Ivan and the girls during this difficult time.
“It’s enough having to deal with cancer and having to get chemo, let alone worrying about how you’re going to pay your bills, tuition, sports, medications and everything else that comes in between.” ‘
She said Mrs Bovingdon had previously helped her raise money after her sister-in-law was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer.
“Sam helped me bake all the hundreds of cupcakes I sold. She also helped me with the fundraiser I organized when my best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer.
‘So I hope I can do everything again to help her. If anyone ever needs anything, Sam will always try to help,” Ms Taylor said.