Lisa's Story - Transcription

Lisa - I’m Lisa, I’m 33 years old, I have 3 children. I’m married to Graham. I’m getting ready for the Teal Charity Ball, which is an event that my husband and I and another friend have organised, to raise awareness and funds for Jo’s Trust which is the UK’s only dedicated cervical cancer charity and also funds for Aberdeen’s Royal Infirmary Gynaecological Research Unit.

I was diagnosed with cervical cancer last year, I went for a smear test last January which came back with abnormal cells and I had to go and have treatment, they burn off the abnormal cells, and remove part of the cervix to get rid of the abnormal cells. Then after you have that treatment done you then go and have another smear test done to make sure that all the cells which then come back are good cells, and that you are clear of abnormal cells. However they came back as cancerous cells, at which point everything moved very quickly and was done very sympathetically, and I was taken into hospital within 3 weeks, just over three weeks it was, and had to have a full hysterectomy which included having all my lymph nodes and everything removed, just to check that the cancer was fully removed and that it wasn’t in my lymph nodes and wasn’t travelling round my system, and thankfully about 4 days before Christmas, we got the news through that I was all clear.

Because I’d been so well throughout the whole thing we wanted to raise awareness of the fact that you can have cervical cancer and not know that you have it. And that’s why it is so important to have these smears done.

We’ve set out with 3 main aims of the evening; and the first one was to raise awareness and funds. We also wanted to say thank you to all the people who had helped us, all of our friends, and family who did so much during that period of our lives. And we wanted just to celebrate life and that we’re all here and able to be at this ball.

Robyn – Well we’ve just had our second HPV jab, and we’re here tonight to help out with the ball, and have a good time, but mostly raise awareness, especially for young girls, to have the cervical cancer jab, and how important it is to fight against cervical cancer in the future.

Rachael – I’m here tonight at the ball to promote the cervical cancer HPV jab to girls all across Scotland, just because it is a good thing to get, and I feel it is good to be protected.

Lisa – Cervical cancer can be a very silent cancer, you know there’s not a lump, you can’t feel anything, you can’t see anything. A lot of the time the only way of knowing is through your smear test. So obviously if there is a way of protecting you at that early age, it‘s ideal. So I would absolutely encourage all girls, to go and have the HPV vaccination, and at the end of the day, it can quite literally save your life.