A WOMAN who won her battle against cervical cancer has spoken out about her ordeal to encourage more women to take preventative measures against the disease.

Vicki Fleming, 40 from Ballaugh, was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was 31 after abnormal cells were found in a routine smear test.

She explained: "I went for regular screening always. It was a routine smear test that picked it up but it wasn't overdue. I had really aggressive cervical cancer which had gone quite far in the three years since the last test."

Cervical cancer is responsible for almost 1,000 deaths per year in the UK. Currently women between the ages of 25 and 64 are offered free screening every three to five years but only 70 percent of eligible women in the Island are attending appointments.

At the time of diagnosis Vicki's two children Oliver and Emily were two and four respectively. Cervical cancer took away her chance of having any more.

She continued: "It's so hard to deliver that kind of news and I just really couldn't take it in at all. It's horrible. You're not ready for news like that - you can't be.

"I hadn't decided that I had finished having children but obviously that decision was made for me. It's ok if it's your decision not to have children but it's not so good if someone makes that decision for you.

"Thankfully I had two children but many women now are leaving it later and later and there are so many people I know who wouldn't have had children at that point."

After the initial diagnosis Vicki underwent a procedure called a cone biopsy which was an operation to remove the area of the cervix where the abnormal cells were found.

Following this she was forced to have a radical hysterectomy at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. 

Vicki remembered: "At that point you realise you need to fight it for the children you've got – you can't think about the children that you may have had. You need to get better. I was much more in control after that. There were no ifs and buts – it was 'this is what's got to be done'.

"The good thing about cervical cancer – if there is a good thing – is that they can surgically remove the area affected so they knew from my tests afterwards that it hadn't gone anywhere else. I don't say that I'm clear - I am clear of cervical cancer but I don't like to tempt fate."

Last week marked Cervical Cancer Awareness Week in the Island but Vicki believes more must still be done to encourage women to undertake the screening process regularly.

She said: "Screening saved my life. People don't go for screening because it's not very nice – but it's not very nice when someone says 'you've got cancer'. I was facing my own mortality and that's not very nice when you are 31.

"It's got huge connotations on everything else – not just the fact that you might die – it really affects the rest of your life.

"My friends were horrified. They were all the same age as me and didn't have kids so they were really astounded that this could be so bad. But some of them still now don't go for screenings regularly because they don't like it but it's not very nice when someone tells you you have cancer either so think about it that way."

Young girls between 12 and 18 in the Island are now being vaccinated against the disease. The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination takes the form of three injections over the course of a school year.

Evidence suggests that it can prevent up to 70 percent of cervical cancers yet there is only a 70 percent uptake meaning 30 percent of eligible young women could be at risk of the disease.

This is something Vicki finds hard to comprehend. She said: "When you get the vaccine you've got this possibility to remove this hideous experience from womens' lives. People thought you couldn't die of cervical cancer until Jade Goody died. I think that really made people think."

For more information on cervical cancer visit the Department of Health website, telephone 01624 642639 or e-mail public.health@gov.im.

Also see: Women urged to protect themselves against cervical cancer