My Mother Died when I was 14. Now it is my turn at 24?

Lucys Story

I’m still here after 24 years; this is a great comfort to those going through the HPV disease tests and cycles. My name is Lucy, and I became acquainted with CA125 Blood tests for Ovarian cancer early. I was alone in my life; my mother died when I was fourteen. And I discovered I had breast cancer in 1993. I underwent surgery, radiotherapy, eight rounds of chemotherapy and three years of hormone therapy. It was a heavy period. My daughter gave me strength. She was five years old, and I couldn’t accept that she could remain alone like what happened to me. I struggled but never felt ill, just momentarily at rest.

To those going through a period of illness and treatment, you will be back in shape as before. I do sports I didn’t do before and have the same resistance as other so-called healthy people.

It’s been almost 24 years, and I’ve healed. I have learned to accept the visible scars and live with the invisible ones, perhaps deeper. K changes your life, makes you more psychologically fragile and more sensitive to the pain of others. In all these years, I have never hidden the fact that I tested positive for HPV. I realised that every time I meet people going through the CA125 illness and the exams and treatments. I have always known that after 24 years of HPV viral attacks inside my body, if I am still here, it is of great comfort and further fuel my hope to make it. Even when I was sick with CA125 levels climbing from tests, I looked for ovarian-type cancer in people who had recovered because I needed that special hope that only a person who has had the illness and recovered can give you.

Final message

For this reason, I felt the need to give back a little of what life has given me back. In recent years, I have joined the Abbracciamo un Sogno Group. They organise gatherings where cancer patients and former patients bear witness, simply by being present, to those who are going through the dark period of the disease. This aims to show that the disease can be cured and that one should always maintain hope. In the group, I found some splendid people. People with a desire to live and to enjoy even small things with simplicity. This may no longer exist among healthy people.

I am happy to have met the person who created the group and my soul sisters who know how to be close with delicate affection and have the right words to soothe the anxiety and fear of those who are going through the time of treatment. They are the people I looked for many years ago and who I finally found.

Prevention and Genetics

Ivana’s Story

This is the story of Ivana. At the age of forty-five, a woman undergoes genetic counselling after being diagnosed with breast cancer at thirty-three.

Her sister died at twenty-seven from the same Ovarian diagnosis for a tumour she had at twenty-five.

To date, no one has explained to Ivana the possibility that she may have a syndrome: the predisposition syndrome for hereditary breast and ovarian level tumour have linked to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

Generally speaking, they have always spoken to her about a family history of breast cancer. Over time, her CA125 healthcare check providers have not recommended surveillance exam beyond those performed for the general population. Not by the general practitioner, not by the surgeon who operated on her or who operated on her sister, not by the radiologists or breast specialists she met in all the years of mammograms and ultrasounds.

It is Ivana, who has two children, who tries with her resources to understand what to do for herself and her family who insistently asks for an Ovarian Level Cancer genetic visit, which finally arrives and, with it also the result of the HPV genetic test, but late, of a month compared to the second diagnosis of contralateral breast cancer at the age of forty-five… Years late compared to the risk he took for his life and that of his family…

This woman is called Ivanna…and Ivanna could be you!

Pia’s testimony

My name is Pia and I just turned 52. In May 2011, I underwent surgery in Manchester for an ovarian cyst. They didn’t even have the foresight to do an impromptu histology since the CA 125 had increased. The histological result (July 2011) revealed endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the c3 ovary.

I had to stay calm for the professor and the oncologist from Manchester. “Let’s do a couple of cycles of chemotherapy, and then we’ll see!”. They didn’t convince me… and my luck was meeting the great Prof. Mallor from Manchester, who, after chemotherapy, operated on me with his team in October, given that his PET scan had reported lymph nodes. In six years, I have undergone 4 operations, and the chemotherapy cycles cannot be counted.

A check proved the last recurrence in February, which resulted in radiotherapy. Thank God I’m still here and leading an almost normal life. Even today, my CA125 Professor follows me. Despite his retirement, he works as an external Ovarian organ Cancer test consultant at the Lecco Hospital.

Additionally, the splendid medical team of the HPV Oncology Test department at Manchester Hospital follows me. Based on my experience, I advise everyone not to underestimate an ovarian cyst. If I had stopped in Manchester, I don’t know if I would be here writing now. So far, I have won battles with a strength I didn’t think I had, and I am ready to win the war!