PARENTS are normally the ones to boss their children around but this lucky mum has her ‘pestering’ son to thank for her ovarian cancer diagnosis.
Moira Hooper, from Penketh, said she could find reasons for all her symptoms and it was not until son Robert told her to see her doctor she found out a six by five inch cyst had been growing on her ovaries.
The 62-year-old grandma said: “I had a swollen tummy but just put that down to middle age spread and went on a mini salad diet, I could cry with tiredness but I was visiting my mum three times a week and looking after my grandson and I was going to the toilet excessively but I just put that down to my age.
“It was my son who said it was ridiculous the number of times I was going but I just said ‘I’m in my sixties and I’ve had three kids this is what happens’.
“He pestered me to see a doctor who tested me for cancer and then in August last year I was being operated on to remove the cyst.”
The retired customer services advisor said the worst thing about the diagnosis was having to tell her three children but she is now keen to spread the word of ovarian cancer and has already handed out 600 leaflets warning others of the symptoms.
Moira added: “Me and my son laugh about it now but if it wasn’t for him pestering me I don’t know when I would have done something about it.
“I do feel really lucky.”
Feeling bloated most days for three weeks or more is the focus of a new ‘Be clear on cancer’ campaign launched by Public Health England after a survey found 97 per cent of women in the north west did not link it with ovarian cancer.
More than 800 women were diagnosed in the north west in 2011 with more than eight in 10 new cases in women aged 50 and over.
OVARIAN cancer symptoms to look out for are:
- a swollen tummy
- feeling bloated
- needing to wee more
- tummy pain for three weeks
