During a discussion with a hospital consultant, my friend, Joanna, was told by a nurse if she could choose any cancer, it would be endometrial cancer because it was contained. I was upset at the time, and it struck me as a weird thing to say, but she was right because my friend had forgone a number of cervical smears, and was in no pain. Only her inability to cope with the bleeding from the cancer and my begging her to do something about it had pushed her into asking for her doctor's help.

Joanna had a radical hysterectomy and subsequent radiotherapy. She experienced only discomfort from the hysterectomy with no pain. The radiotherapy side effects began two weeks into the treatment and most of them ended two weeks after the treatment had ended. This included tiredness. Unfortunately, the nausea and diarrhoea continued throughout her life. The upset stomachs being attributed to radiation collitis.

My worry here is that people will read this last couple of sentences and think that they will not have radiotherapy. However, it was the radiotherapy that ensured cancer cells would not grow in that area again, so though it was horrible to see what Joanna had to experience in terms of side effects, I would plead that cancer sufferers go into radiotherapy and chemotherapy when it is recommended. This is because these are separate procedures but they are adjuvant therapies and necessary to complete treatment.

The hysterectomy and radiotherapy were both successful for Joanna's stage 3c cancer. She survived cancer. When she died in March, it was almost a year after being diagnosed and treated for cancer. It was also for something related to some of the many other disabilities she had.

To anyone with this or any cancer, I wish you luck with your treatment.