'Get a second opinion if something isn’t right!'
That’s the message from grieving sisters who lost their sibling to cervical cancer after it was missed by FIVE smear tests.Philomena Henry, from Belfast, died of the disease just after her 31st birthday, despite undergoing a radical hysterectomy.
“She had a smear test, but it came back clear. She ended up having five tests within the space of a year, but each one was fine. The sisters are from a close-knit family, and their parents, Maureen and John Devine, were also getting worried. “She burst into tears, saying she knew it was cancer. We tried to calm her down, telling her it was probably just a bad infection or a cyst. She was only 27, never in a million years did we think it could be cancer.”Maureen and John both accompanied their daughter to get her results.
“She kept saying she couldn’t have children, so what man would ever want her now. She thought she’d never find love.” “For months she’d been having nightmares that the cancer had returned. I remember her telling me she’d had this bad dream, where all her family were gathered around her deathbed.Doctors told Philomena and her distraught family that the cancer had spread to her lungs. It was terminal, although chemotherapy might buy her extra time. She was just 29-years-old.“But Philomena was her typical caring self, telling us not to worry.
Five weeks later, on May 10th 2012, Philomena passed away in her family home with Jonny, her parents, sisters and big brother Danny, 40, at her side. She was just 31 years old. The family have decided to tell Philomena’s very personal story, to raise awareness of the importance of taking women’s health problems seriously.ONE in three women is overdue a smear test, and the same number admit to being “too embarrassed” to have the check-up. But it could save your life.
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