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Age 30 & under
Interview CC14  

Interview CC14

Age at Interview: 36
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 27
Background: Flight Attendant; cohabiting, no children.
Brief outline:Diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer and given a poor chance of survival in 1992. External Radiotherapy followed by Internal Radiotherapy.


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She explains how she has learnt to cope with long term bowel problems following radiotherapy.

 



In the beginning I was afraid to [go out] because of my bowel and I would always be looking where the nearest toilet was or if I'd be on a course for a day I would think I can't go because what if I have to run out of the course. But I've actually learnt to live with that and I do tell most people so it's not sort of an issue and if I'm out for the day. I think psychologically I can cope with it a lot better now so physically it doesn't affect me so badly for some reason. So that would be the only thing that would be a long term effect on me I think but its something that I have dealt with and can deal with and it doesn't affect anything I do anymore. And nothing else is affected, I can do anything.

Mentally it was easy when I was with my husband because I thought he understands, he knows. But when I was going into a new relationship it was something that I thought someone's not going to like me because of this. But its actually amazing how people understand. My new boyfriend hasn't got a problem with it at all. And he will be in the car with me and spot the toilets for me if I need to go so he's very supportive. I think its something again you've got to talk about. If you don't tell your friends and you don't admit that you've got a problem then you probably have a problem yourself mentally because dealing with that is quite hard if you don't admit it. And I think probably I could wear one of those medi alert bracelets if I needed to for shops and things but I don't want to do that, I don't want to be treated as an invalid, I want to be a normal person and if you need to there's always ways basically.
Jenni Murray - Cancer
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