Mum's cervical cancer diagnosis came months after clear smear

Gemma was not going to wait 20 weeks for a gynaecology referral.

Instead she waited for six hours outside the specialist's door without an appointment demanding to be seen.

The mother-of-two from Derby, had experienced heavy bleeding for a number of months and after countless GP appointments and trips to A&E, decided to take matters into her own hands.

The gynaecologist found the tumour straight away and she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Now the 39-year-old is urging other women with concerning symptoms to push hard for answers.

"Please don't ignore [the symptoms] because just because your smear was clear," she told the BBC.

"I think everyone knows their own body. You need to be push to be checked."

Gemma said she had suffered unpredictable severe bleeding episodes throughout October 2025. She was up to date on her smear tests with one taken earlier that year coming back all clear.

"I went to my GP and they were kind of adamant that it was perimenopausal," she said.

"The bleeding continued, the pain then got slightly more intense and I just knew that something wasn't right.

"I think we know ourselves when, you know, there's changes in your body and things aren't as they usually are."

Another GP visit saw Gemma being prescribed some medication but that did not help.

"It was at the point where the bleeding was, you know, really, really uncontrollable and quite, you know, severe and unpredictable that I was bleeding through my clothes," she said.

"Going out the house and just kind of living day-to-day life was just hard and difficult, and that was something I really struggled with."

She returned to her GP and had internal examinations where they said her cervix "looked normal".

Blood tests also came back clear and Gemma went for an internal and external hospital scan where "everything looked OK and normal".

With no let-up in her symptoms, Gemma asked to be referred to gynaecology at Derby Royal Hospital but was informed there was a 20-week wait for a referral.

"I presented myself in A&E on numerous occasions, I was exhausted, fatigued because of the blood loss... I wasn't acceptable of the 20 week wait, I wanted answers," she said.

"So I presented myself at gynaecology and waited for about six hours to be seen because that was the only way that I knew that I'd be able to get some kind of answer.

"So as soon as I was and they had a look, they found the tumour straight away.

"Obviously, they couldn't tell me if it was cancer or exactly what it was. But as soon as I got examined, it was found immediately."

Gemma was diagnosed with cervical cancer but was told it was a common type with an "80 to 90% cure rate" that was very reactive to treatment.

Despite this, Gemma said the news came as a massive shock.

"It was devastating. You never think that it's going to be you," she said.

"As a mum, your first thoughts are not about yourself, it's about your children. I think once the shock had settled in, I knew I'd got to focus on treatment and staying strong.

"It's hard enough to go through everything that you're sort of going through at the time.

"I think smear tests are really important and they absolutely save lives. But they obviously don't test for everything."

Gemma is now undergoing five weeks of intensive chemotherapy once a week and radiotherapy each day from Monday to Friday to treat the tumour, which is 6cm by 4cm (2.3in by 1.5in).

She has also been told she cannot not have a hysterectomy due to the tumour's proximity to her bowel and bladder.

Now Gemma is urging people to keep pushing if they feel they are not being listened to.

"Please don't ignore [the symptoms] because just because your smear was clear.

"I think everyone knows their own body. You need to be push to be checked."

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