I had a long career of over thirty years as a Registered Nurse and retired in 2016 through ill health. My career allowed me to work in many UK locations and also in Australia where I worked in Kalgoorlie for a short time before travelling around this vast magical country.

Most of my career was spent in the palliative care setting. I was instrumental in setting up the hospice in Stafford and was the first Sister-in-Charge there before moving on to work in the community as a Macmillan Nurse Specialist. After a move to Somerset I worked in the community as a Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist for a Hospice. Despite loving my career I was unable to continue with this work when I developed a recurrence of my Ovarian Cancer so I retired under medical grounds.

In 2014 I was diagnosed with Borderline Ovarian Tumours which is a complicated disease to explain. My Oncologist described it as “not cancer but it is not, not cancer either”. Borderline is still essentially a malignant disease but not at the point whereby chemotherapy is of use because of the slow growth of cells. Instead, this disease is surgically resected in the hope that all evidence of disease is removed. The Borderline Tumours are often a precursor to another type of malignant disease known as Low Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer which is what happened to me less than a year later. Low Grade Ovarian Cancer is rare and grows more slowly than High Grade Ovarian Cancer and accounts for less than 10% of all Ovarian Cancers. Due to its rarity not enough is known about the disease and so it is treated as a High Grade Ovarian Cancer would be, which is chemotherapy. Unfortunately chemotherapy is not effective when treating Low Grade Ovarian Cancer but with the absence of a separate treatment protocol this is usually the go-to treatment regime that Oncologists turn to. Slowly more is becoming known about this deadly disease and other treatments are becoming available but progress remains difficult due to the rarity of the disease.

I live in hope that in my lifetime a successful treatment will become available for women like me who are living and dying with Low Grade Ovarian Cancer. In the meantime I continue to do what I do best in my role as a Nurse. I campaign tirelessly for better and more appropriate treatment options for Low Grade Ovarian Cancer; I am an advocate for other women in my situation; I passionately promote palliative and hospice care services for those living with incurable disease and I share my story openly to break down the fears and stigma associated with a cancer diagnosis.