While the world was preoccupied with COVID-19, I was surprised by ovarian cancer

(Siobhan O’Sullivan/ ABC News) — February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I hadn’t given ovarian cancer any thought until the day I was diagnosed with it.

It has become cliché to point out what a strange year 2020 was. On 3 August, for me, it verged on the surreal. That morning I went to my GP with a generalised feeling of being unwell. I was not in pain. All I could say was that something didn’t feel right, and my abdomen was bloated.

That afternoon my doctor phoned. My blood results showed something seriously wrong. He told me to go to hospital. I now know that my so-called “CA125” blood marker, which should sit below 25, was elevated to around the 470.

I had Stage III ovarian cancer. I found out because I went to the doctor complaining of feeling “yuck”. Thank goodness I did. (…)

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