A mother-of-one has warned women not to dismiss a telltale sign of deadly ovarian cancer that is often mistaken for an upcoming period.
Sophie Casey, 28, from Leeds, was diagnosed in October with terminal ovarian cancer that had spread around her body after suffering extreme bloating that made her ‘look nine-months pregnant’.
However, her GP and hospital doctors said the worrying symptom was nothing more than a common stomach infection.
She was prescribed antibiotics, which ultimately made her vomit.
Now she faces a bleak prognosis and the possibility of having a stoma bag fitted — a disposable bag that collects waste — due to damage to her bowel caused by the ovarian tumour.
‘My symptoms could have been my period,’ said Ms Casey, adding that the level of bloating she suffered was something she had ‘never had before’.
‘People might not think too much into it… but you have to know your body and know your cycle.’
After first visiting her GP back in September, Ms Casey was told it was likely a common infection — such as one contracted from contaminated food — behind her symptom.
Sophie Casey, 28, was diagnosed with stage 4B ovarian cancer in October after several visits to her GP, a misdiagnosis and multiple A&E trips
Ms Casey, mum to one-year-old Henry, and her partner George Burril, (pictured) are raising funds to help them make memories as a family and spreading awareness of the cancer
But when it didn’t go away, she visited her local A&E.
Doctors initially gave her antibioitics, but they failed to work, causing her to return again to the hospital.
‘They ran some tests there and did some scans and they said they had found a mass,’ she told Leeds Live.
After further tests Ms Casey spoke with an oncologist who gave her a diagnosis.
She said: ‘They told me it was terminal. Sort of treatable, but not curable.
‘I had to have three rounds of chemotherapy and they will see how its responding to that before they can give me a life expectancy.’
Prior to her chemotherapy, which will finish at the end of December, Ms Casey had 16 litres of fluid drained from her stomach.
The mass was also pushing on bowel, meaning she has been at risk of a bowel obstruction and was told she is on high alert for surgery and a stoma bag.
Ms Casey, mum to one-year-old Henry, and her partner George Burril, are now raising funds to help them make memories as a family and spread awareness of the cancer.
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the UK.
The disease kills around 11 women every day in Britain, on average, or 4,000 a year.
Ovarian cancer is a rare form of the disease that develops in the ovaries – the female organs that produce eggs. It is often called a ‘silent killer’ as symptoms don’t present themselves until the late stages of the disease
Ms Casey is urging women to look out for changes in the menstrual cycle and any symptoms that could be ‘everyday issues’
It also kills three times as many women in the US every year, figures show.
It is often diagnosed late because symptoms are vague and mimic other, less serious problems like irritable bowel syndrome.
They can include indigestion, pelvic or abdominal pain, loss of appetite, constipation, and needing to urinate more often.
Around 93 per cent of women diagnosed live five years or more if it’s spotted at the earliest stage, compared with just 13 per cent diagnosed at stage four.
Ms Casey was diagnosed with stage 4B ovarian cancer, which means it has spread inside the liver or spleen, lymph nodes outside the tummy or to other organs such as the lungs, according to Cancer Research UK.
About a fifth of women with ovarian cancer are also diagnosed in A&E, when it is often too late for any treatment.
Although most cases of the disease are diagnosed in women between 75 and 79 years, cases are rising in younger people.
Since the early 1990s rates have increased by 78 per cent in women under 24 and increased by 10 per cent in those between 25 and 49, data from Cancer Research shows.
Ms Casey is urging women to look out for changes in the menstrual cycle and any symptoms that could be ‘everyday issues’.
‘Don’t be fobbed off with doctors saying you’re young,’ she added.
‘My doctor said to me that it’s “not common in women your age” and I said, “that’s the problem, that’s what I want to change”… [that view].’
