Donna Marklew had to undergo a hysterectomy to treat complications caused by childbirth.
But the operation led the Coventry mum to receive a life-changing diagnosis when tests later revealed she had a rare form of cancer.
She was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, external, which was only discovered after tissue removed during a hysterectomy at Warwick Hospital was analysed following a uterine prolapse.
“I was very shocked because I’d never heard of neuroendocrine cancer,” she said.
“[I] was left with not much information because it wasn’t known to anybody, and then trying to explain to people [that] I’ve been diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, you’re kind of met with blank faces.”
The rare cancer, which starts in the nerve and cell glands that make and release hormones, is estimated to affect 6,000 people in the UK every year, according to the charity, Neuroendocrine Cancer UK.
Lisa Walker, the chief executive of Neuroendocrine Cancer UK, said that the average time between people experiencing a first symptom and getting a diagnosis is five years.
“That is because the symptoms could be other conditions, and then people find themselves perhaps going down a different route and then needing to go back when the symptoms change or other symptoms are added in, which then start to look more like neuroendocrine cancer,” she explained.
Marklew is now trying to raise awareness of the disease, which coincides with World Neuroendocrine Cancer Day , externalon Tuesday.
She said that the disease is actually a group of cancers that develop in hormone-producing cells throughout the body.
Diagnosis can be particularly difficult, especially for women, she added.
