Sarah was young, a teacher who loved to sing, a loving aunt and a globe-trotter.
It all happened very quickly. She began to notice symptoms early August 2020, she was bloated and constipated. She went to see her GP who referred her for blood tests and a scan, but they didn’t examine her or feel her tummy and told her to take constipation pills and drink peppermint tea to try and ease her symptoms.
The medication didn’t work and her symptoms persisted. At this point she went to A&E to get her symptoms checked, they gave her an x-ray and some blood tests. The blood test wasn’t specifically looking for any ovarian cancer markers, and her x-ray showed constipation, so she was sent home again without her diagnosis challenged.
At this point Sarah was due to go on holiday to Dublin to meet her friend, she flew out, and after showing her friend her bloating, she took her to the A&E there in Dublin. They scanned her again and this time found a mass on her ovaries. This was on the 20th of August, it was at this point that she called me to tell me the news.
Sadly, when the results of the biopsy came back it showed that the mass was cancer. She was kept in hospital and told she would need a full hysterectomy and have her appendix and part of her bowel removed. She would then receive chemotherapy, as some of the masses were on her diaphragm, which couldn’t be removed with surgery.
She started to quickly go downhill, she was taken to ICU to be given oxygen, it was here that was she told her condition was very serious and that the type of cancer she had was rare and aggressive.
On the 4th of September Sarah called me to go through her Will and to advise me about what to do with her house. I felt quite cross having this conversation because it just seemed like she’d given up. This was the last time I spoke to her.
She sent me a message to let me know that the cancer had spread to her omentum, but that they were still planning to go ahead with her operation. It was then on the 7th of September that the doctor called to say that the decision had been made to no longer go ahead with Sarah’s surgery as her health had deteriorated too much.
We booked flights to Dublin to go and see her to say goodbye, although because of covid, Sarah had been alone in hospital due to restrictions, her friend Anna was allowed to go and be with her at this point. During Sarah’s better moments, they sang together, some of her favourites- Prince Raspberry Beret and You Are My Sunshine.
On the 8th of September, before we had arrived in Dublin, my sister Sarah, passed away with her friend Anna by her side.
I was lucky that I was able to go and see her at the chapel of rest.
It all happened so quickly, and even the doctors were in disbelief at how quickly we had lost Sarah. It was only after she passed away that we found out her specific diagnosis of Small Cell ovarian cancer. Her biopsy was sent off to Belfast for a second opinion and it was confirmed a week after she died.
After we found out her diagnosis, I did some research online, and only around 300 people worldwide are diagnosed with Small Cell Hypercalceamic Ovarian Cancer. This is when I came across The Eve Appeal, and more specifically Angela’s fund. There is also a US website with information on, Small Cell Hypercalceamic Ovarian Cancer Foundation.
Sarah’s death has left us all traumatised, it was so sudden. It was five weeks from her first symptoms to when she passed away. None of the information we found on ovarian cancer seemed to explain why her condition was getting worse so quickly, and why it was so aggressive.
My brother and I have all sought grief counselling, which has helped enormously, and I have since spoken to her doctors about what happened to her and they have done an internal investigation. They will now always do a physical examination for someone coming in with the symptoms of ovarian cancer. We may not be able to change what happened to Sarah, but maybe someone else can be saved from the same outcome.
My husband, Rob, will be running the Virtual London Marathon in Sarah’s memory raising money for The Eve Appeal and Angela’s Fund.