Cervical cancer signs: Newlywed’s ‘heavy period’ was symptom of stage 2 cancer

Former occupational therapist Talitha Sargeant, 29, of Midhurst, West Sussex, was disappointed when what she assumed was her period started just days after her church wedding to mental health nurse Mathew, 30, in October 2016.

Hoping to enjoy consummating their marriage, during a four-week tour of the USA, visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Las Vegas, instead, she said: “As soon as we landed in San Francisco, I thought, ‘Oh, here we go, I’m on my period.’”

She went on: “I was cursing it starting on the first day of our four weeks away. We wanted to do what newlyweds do on their honeymoon.

“My periods had been so up and down in the run up to the wedding, which I’d put down to pre-wedding stress, that I thought it was me finally relaxing and my period was starting.

“We still managed to make love, but there was blood everywhere.”

Then, two days into their holiday, in a swanky bar in LA, she suddenly needed the toilet.

“I felt that something wasn’t right and rushed to the loo,” she said. “But I pulled my dress up and saw there was blood everywhere.

“It might sound a bit graphic, but it looked like someone had been murdered. The blood was dripping down my legs, onto the floor and had soaked through my dress and knickers.”

Concerned, Talitha rushed back to her husband and they returned to their hotel.

“I bought loads of sanitary products and put it down to a really heavy period,” she explained.

“The bleeding became lighter for a while, so I put the worries out of my mind. Then, when we arrived in Hawaii the rushing heavy flow started again. I had to rush back to the apartment and this time rang my mum, Rose, 58.”

She booked an appointment for Talitha back in the UK, for the day when the pair returned from honeymoon, on November 11, 2016.

Talitha recalled: “It didn’t actually put a downer on the holiday. We still had an amazing time and I didn’t feel that worried about the bleeding.”

Back home, her GP prescribed hormone tablets, telling her to return in a week if things didn’t improve.

When her problems persisted, Talitha was sent for an ultrasound at Horsham Hospital, in West Sussex, where the sonographer saw shading on her cervix, sending her for a colposcopy, to examine it, together with the lower part of the womb and top of the vagina.

“I had the colposcopy on December 21. We were just getting ready for Christmas and I felt really scared,” she said.

“I knew something wasn’t right and with it being the festive season, everything felt a lot darker.”

Then on Christmas Eve, Talitha was dealt a devastating blow.

She recalled: “On December 24 I received a copy of a letter that was sent to my GP from the colposcopy office.

“As a health care professional, who works with patients with cancer, I was able to read between the lines of the letter and I was devastated.“It detailed things about the investigation and the results that I had not been told.

“On New Year’s Eve 2014, Mathew had proposed in our home.”

She continued: “But now, thanks to this letter, on Christmas Eve I discovered there was a 7cm mass in my cervix that was most likely to be cancer.

“I was devastated. It felt like I was in a big black hole. Just two months earlier I’d married my soulmate, on the happiest day of my life, and now I discovered I had cancer.”

Trying to enjoy Christmas as best she could, on January 3, 2017, Talitha had a cervical investigation under general anaesthetic at East Surrey Hospital, in Redhill, Surrey.

“Once I woke up, it was confirmed that I had cervical cancer stage 2B,” she said. “I knew they were going to tell me that, but it didn’t make the news any less awful.

“My husband and my parents, Rose, and retired postman Paul, 65, were with me and it hit us all like a bus.”

Referred to the St Luke’s Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guilford, Talitha was told in mid January she would need surgery to move her ovaries, in an attempt to preserve hormone function and fertility.

“I was told I would never be able to carry my own child. This left me feeling robbed and devastated,” she said.

“I was a newly married wife planning on starting a family.  Oddly I found this more upsetting than being told I had cancer.

“From there, I started a gruelling seven weeks of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and brachytherapy – a form of radiotherapy.”

After three months, Talitha was told her cervical tumour had gone but, tragically, there was shadowing in her chest and abdomen.

“Following a PET scan, I was told on July 14, 2017, that my cancer had, sadly, spread to my lungs and lower back and at this point I was incurable.

“I cannot describe in words how it is to hear that news.  Mathew could have told me he couldn’t cope. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d left me.”

She added: “Instead, we appreciate each other more, we’ve learned about each other more and we love each other more.”

Given a prognosis of two to three years, Talitha is now having palliative care, involving chemotherapy and immunotherapy every three weeks.

She said: “This whole experience has put things in perspective. I treasure moments more and I love Mathew more. I know that with each day a new challenge will arise but whilst we have each other we will succeed.  I remain positive about my future, despite what I have been told.”

After giving up work, Talitha plans to travel to Paris, Portugal, Canada and visit their honeymoon stops in America again.

Talitha said: “I intend to be positive no matter what- even when I’m semi bald and resembling a member of the Addams family!

“I wish this was not happening to me, but I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason, even if I cannot understand it.”

She added: “I want other women to know their symptoms – pain and discomfort during sex, an unpleasant smelling vaginal discharge and bleeding.

“Cancer may be inside me but it does not define who I am.”

Talitha has been helped by cancer charity, Macmillan. For more information about support at Christmas visit www.macmillan.org.uk/christmaswithcancer