Surbiton mum with ovarian cancer backs awareness campaign (From This Is Local London)

Surbiton mum with ovarian cancer backs awareness campaign

4:22pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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A Surbiton mother with incurable ovarian cancer is backing a campaign which aims to alert women to early symptoms of the killer disease.

The Beat campaign from charity Ovacome, launched this month, spells out three warning signs of ovarian cancer - bloating, eating less and abdominal pain.

Former office manager Antonia Ross, 59, was diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer in January 2001.

She first noticed the symptoms in a short period of six to eight weeks, but she believes if she knew what signs to look out for with ovarian cancer, things may have been different for her.

She said: “Like most women the thought that I might have ovarian cancer had never crossed my mind, as I did not know what the symptoms were and with no screening programme in place it was not on my radar.

“My first reaction was total shock when I was told it was ovarian cancer. I knew nothing about the disease and didn’t know anyone who’d had it either.

“Had I been aware of the symptoms of ovarian cancer I might have questioned what was going on in my body earlier.”

Download an awareness poster from ovacome.org.uk and to ask your GP surgery to display it in the waiting room.