Rosa

I was diagnosed, with a stage three ovarian germ cell tumour on the 1st February 2018. I’d just graduated drama school and was finally working as an actor, which had been my dream for so many years. With this diagnosis, it felt like everything had changed. During treatment, I decided I had to find a way to keep doing what I loved. I started writing a blog, which I soon turned into a one-woman show Madame Ovary, which I took to Edinburgh in 2019, just about a year after I got the all-clear. It felt like a way to take back control of something I was scared was going to control me.

When I was diagnosed at 23 I had no idea that ovarian cancer could happen to someone so young. I certainly didn’t think my symptoms had anything to do with cancer, so I kept putting them down to a dietary problem, which led to my late diagnosis. Once diagnosed, I struggled to find people my age who had been through a similar thing. That’s why Trekstock were so amazing - they introduced me to other young people with cancer and gave me the support I didn’t know I needed.

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