Cervical cancer

Hi, I completely understand how you feel. I start Monday 5th and am terrified too but we have to take it one day at a time. It’s such a heartbreaking diagnosis and a tough road to recovery. I am happy to be beside you on here whilst we fight together. Sending you love and hugs xx 

Hi Jen81 and welcome to our group.

I hope we can help support you and help you through this so you don’t have to feel so alone-cancer can be a very lonely place, but you’ll be among friends here who can understand your feelings and share our own experiences of going through this.

Do you feel able to share a little bit more about your situation with us? If you can tell us what treatment you are having, and what stage your cancer is at, I’m sure there will be others in the group who will have gone through or are going through the same. 

I was diagnosed with stage 2b adenocarcinoma originally, and as I wasn’t able to have surgery, my first treatment  was chemoradiation-the plan was to have 5 weeks of Cisplatin chemotherapy while having 25 sessions of daily radiotherapy every weekday. This was to be followed by brachytherapy as an inpatient.

Plans can change-mine did-but everyone’s plan is individual to them depending on their circumstances. You will see when reading in the group that we’ve followed different paths, but between us we have lots of experience of different kinds of treatments. 

Getting a cancer diagnosis and facing treatment is scary for everyone, so you’re not alone in how you feel. But I hope you’ll find it helpful talking with others and please feel free to ask any questions as you go along. 

You are very welcome to be with us, and I hope we can keep chatting with you which will hopefully make this a bit easier for you. 

Sarah xx

Thank you, I'm 43 and I live in the Lake District, we've got along tough time ahead of us, I start on the 2nd, 6 weeks of carboplystatin ( spelt wrong I think) then to Preston for another 6 weeks of cystplatin along side 6weeks of Radiotherapy, then to Christies in Manchester, I honestly don't know how im going to cope, and try and still be there for my kids, I'm terrified how I'll it's going to make me, but it would be good to talk to you, someone who understands, send so much love and hugs

I've been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, stage 3/4, due to my lymph nodes in my groin coming back as uncertain, so they're still deciding whether to overtreat incase 

It must have been really difficult to hear your diagnosis and your treatment plan-that’s a lot of travelling for you. 

There are other ladies in the group who’ve gone through the same protocol of 6 weeks Carboplatin, then 6 weeks Cisplatin alongside radiotherapy, followed by brachytherapy so hopefully they will see your post and tell you how they got on. 

The chemotherapy will treat you systemically, ie throughout your body, and then the radiotherapy will be targeted to exactly where the cancer is, including the lymphodes. The brachytherapy at the end of treatment will give a specific final blast. This treatment schedule can be very effective, and there are lots of ladies who’ve come through it successfully, so I hope you might be able to hold onto that. 

The treatment is intense but over a relatively short term compared to some other cancers, but I hope you’ve got good family support as this will be invaluable. You haven’t said how old your children are, so I don’t know if they’ll be able to help out? 

The treatment can make you very tired, and you will need to be able to rest and look after yourself. I had a round trip of three hours every day for my radiotherapy and did find that exhausting. But none of it made me really ill. I only had Cisplatin, but it didn’t make me sick or even nauseous, and I was still able to function, even though the radiotherapy did give me some bowel and bladder side effects. However, I didn’t have children to look after, and I had a partner who helped me a lot.

It’s best just to take one day at a time. No-one knows how treatment will affect them until it starts, so it’s hard to predict how you’ll get through it, but the main thing is that it can be done. Your team will help you by making things as easy as they can for you, so keep them posted about how you’re feeling as you go through treatment. 

Sarah xx

Hi. I'm so sorry to hear about your diagnosis.  It is indeed a scary time. I have exactly the same as you except for the position of the lymph nodes. I was diagnosed in February 2025 and have been in and out of treatment since then. Please let me know if you have any questions.  I'm here to help if I can! X

My kids are 22 boy ,16,girl 14, boy, they're a nightmare, but that's my fault I've always done everything for them, they huff n puff when I ask for help, They've been spoken to about what's happening and what to expect, so I hope they will step up when needed,

I've been put on Oramorph today as the pain is getting alot worse, did you have pain?? How long did it take to stop?  I'm feeling very anxious about taking it as I had a bad experience with Tramadol and I didn't know where I was or what I was doing, and I really don't want to feel like that again, Did you lose ur hair? They've offered me a cold cap but some people said it wasn't comfortable and that it didn't work?  Jenny xx

 hi Jen81

I totally understand how you feel. I was diagnosed age 32 (I'm now 55) with stage 3 cervical cancer. I had radiotherapy, chemotherapy and internal Cesium therapy.  have been cancer free since!  You are not alone, we're here with you. Get as much help from family and friends as the radio and chemo (if that's what you're having) is exhausting and it will probably hit you like a brick. Make sure you have support for appointments, cooking, cleaning etc. Xx

My hair thinned, my consultant advised washing in Baby shampoo and that seemed to help. Xx

That's fantastic news  I think I have everything in place, people on stand buy, I have very good friends who will be there for me, I have my kids too, hopefully they will step up if needed, as I've always done everything for them, rod for my own back I know, so they going to get a shock   I'm sure they'll do OK 

Jenny xx