Jess Hardiman
A woman has shared the painful symptoms that led to her heartbreaking cancer diagnosis, having been dismissed by doctors seven times.
Abbie Jarvis, 27, started noticing concerning signs in October last year, finding herself in A&E three times as the pain became unbearable.
However, doctors told her they couldn’t work out what was wrong with her.
When she finally received a diagnosis, Jarvis was shocked to find she had a disease usually associated with people in their sixties, admitting she ‘just felt numb’.
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A cystoscopy had revealed she had grade three bladder cancer, which means her cells look very abnormal and spread quicker.
Jarvis said: "They told me my biopsy had come back and that I had a tumour.
"I didn't take it in for a second, I just felt numb and didn't say anything - my eyes were just filling up.
"I had to get my head around it, especially because I was on my own.
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"The nurse was trying to speak to me and tell me about the whole process and it was going in one ear and out of the other ear."
Jarvis first started experiencing a range of symptoms last October, including being unable to walk because of pain in her pelvis and blood in her urine.
She said she visited her local GP around four times, and A&E three times, but each time was told doctors weren’t sure what the issue was.
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She was told she might have an overactive bladder or painful bladder syndrome, before eventually being diagnosed with cancer.
Jarvis continued: "I went to my doctors around four times in October and then I went to A&E around three times in November - I went through all the emotions.
"I went and said I had a pain down below and then they either think it's water infection or something else that they will think of first.
"But I don't think they would ever test me for cancer straight away, even though I had quite a lot of the symptoms."
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After suffering regularly with UTIs and kidney infections when she was younger, Jarvis had surgery in 2019 to stretch her urethra.
Doctors said the cells in her body could have changed, in turn resulting in her tumour.
Jarvis, from Warrington in Cheshire, is now undergoing BCG treatment, which is administered directly into the bladder and makes it react in a way that prompts the immune system to get rid of the cancer cells.
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Depending on how that goes, Jarvis may have to look to other treatment or have surgery to remove her bladder.
"They've said it's not spread and has confined to my bladder, which was a big relief," she said.
"Because it's not spreading, then I felt like I had a bit of time to try the BCG treatment."
She is now speaking out to raise awareness of bladder cancer and its symptoms, especially as most new cases diagnosed in those aged 60 and above - some three decades older than her.
Jarvis' friends are also running the Great Manchester 10k in May to raise money for Action Bladder Cancer UK.
Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/5ep7c-kicking-cancers-ass to donate.