A young woman who has been diagnosed with both cervical and breast cancer all before turning 30 has revealed her plans to start a family with her fiance, with the help of a surrogate.
Still just 28, Helen Johnson, who says she has always ‘longed’ to be a mother, faced a double whammy, when she found a pea sized lump in her breast exactly a year after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Helen, from Bolton in Greater Manchester, froze her eggs after learning she had cervical cancer when she was 27, just 14 months after her first ever smear test – which was clear.
She had been warned that the gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment she underwent to tackle the 5cm tumour on her cervix meant she was unlikely to be able to get pregnant.
Now Helen, who is now cancer free and due to marry project manager, Tom Miller, 26, next year, has told how they hope to become parents using a surrogate mother.
Helen Johnson, now 28, seen with her fiance Tom Miller at a friend’s wedding, has battled cervical cancer and breast cancer
Helen, seen left with a friend, says she has always longed to start a family of her own
‘Knowing I would never be pregnant was so sad, as I was desperate to start a family and carry a baby,’ said Helen.
‘I also felt guilty for Tom, for robbing him of that, but, as always, he was so supportive, saying we’d have a great life together no matter what.
‘But I’ve always wanted to be a mum, so we won’t be giving up on that. I don’t know when we’ll do it, but our perfect solution will be to use a surrogate instead.’
Helen, who is on sick leave from her role as a customer services assistant, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2016, over a year after her first smear test, in March 2015 – which all women are offered aged 25 – came back clear.
In May 2016, she had a day of heavy vaginal discharge, together with mild back pain and, in July, she decided to see her GP.
Helen and Tom are planning their wedding and looking forward to starting a family
She said: ‘I was very frank with him about the colour and everything about the discharge. I didn’t feel embarrassed, as I knew that’s what he needed to know if he was going to find out what was wrong with me.’
Referred to the Royal Bolton Hospital for a colposcopy – a procedure to examine the cervix – a small amount of tissue was also taken for biopsy, revealing that Helen had cervical cancer.
‘The tumour on my cervix measured 5cm, meaning it must have grown that big since my smear test,’ she explained.
‘I was totally devastated. Everything they were saying to me was a blur. The Macmillan Cancer Support nurse came in and the first thing I asked was, ‘Will I be able to have children?’
‘I’d longed to be a mum, I knew I was meant to be one, so the idea that it might never happen to me was truly heartbreaking.’
Told she needed five weeks of combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, followed by brachytherapy, where radioactive material is inserted directly into the cancerous area, and warned she may never carry her own child, Helen also saw a fertility specialist at St Mary’s Hospital in nearby Manchester.
Sadly, not only did chemotherapy cause damage to the ovaries, leading to infertility, but her treatment would also send her body into menopause.
This meant she would need hormone replacement therapy, (HRT) to regulate her hormones and reduce the risk of conditions like osteoporosis, which are exacerbated by a lack of oestrogen.
At the fertility hospital, before the treatment started, Helen had her eggs frozen, so she and Tom could use a surrogate in the future.
Helen, seen left, and right while undergoing chemotherapy, said doctors found a 5cm tumour on her cervix
Then, still in shock, as she came to terms with everything, a month after her diagnosis, on August 4, 2016, Tom proposed.
Helen recalled: ‘We’d come back from the hospital and decided to go for a walk. Within just a few weeks, I’d discovered that not only did I have a 5cm tumour, but I wouldn’t be able to carry my own child, after the gruelling chemo and radiotherapy I was facing.
‘Tom and I were just crying our eyes out on a bench we always sit on at Rivington reservoir, when he asked me to marry him.
‘I was concerned about not being able to give him a family in a conventional way, but he said it didn’t matter. We’d work it out and he loved me so much, he’d always be there for me.
‘I kept thanking him, as I was so grateful to him.’
Her gruelling treatment started a month later, lasting for five weeks and, at the end, she was relieved to hear that the cancer had been removed.
In the January she started combined HRT, consisting of the female hormones oestrogen and progestogen.
Going for check-ups every three months at Manchester’s specialist cancer centre, the Christie Hospital, Helen started putting her life back on track.
Then, in July 2017 – exactly a year after her diagnosis – she found a pea-sized lump in her left breast.
She said: ‘It felt like the cruellest twist of fate.
‘Tom and I had planned to go to Manchester for a meal on July 15th, to mark the year anniversary since my diagnosis, but, on that morning, I woke up and, lying in bed, felt a lump on my left breast.
‘Panicking, I asked Tom, ‘Do you think this feels like a lump?’, it was pea-sized and hard, moved around when I touched it.
‘He confirmed it felt like a lump, but said it was probably nothing. I was in full-on fear mode, though, having just got over my first cancer trauma, and I couldn’t face a second one.’
Going straight to see her doctor out of hours that day, she was referred to the breast specialist at Lancashire’s Chorley and South Ribble Hospital later that month.
There, a biopsy revealed that Helen had stage one breast cancer and would need a lumpectomy to remove the 1.5cm tumour, as well as more chemo and radiotherapy.
While some HRT treatment can be a risk factor for breast cancer, Helen’s was confirmed to be triple negative, meaning the three most common receptors known to fuel most breast cancer growth–oestrogen, progesterone, and the HER-2/neu gene– were not present in her tumour.
Despite the heartache, the young couple are refusing to give up on their dream of children
Helen, seen left and right with a friend, was diagnosed with cervical cancer 14 months after her smear test results came back clear
‘The doctors said they had no idea why I developed breast cancer at such an early age and that the two cancers were unconnected. It could have just been bad luck.
‘But I still began resenting my own body and other people, thinking, ‘Why me? Why again?’ But I knew I had to stay positive,’ she added.
Starting her treatment on October 4 last year, Helen lost her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes because of the chemotherapy.
‘That was one of the worst parts, losing so much of what makes you a woman,’ she said.
Tests also revealed that she had an unknown variation of BRCA2, one of the faulty genes causing breast cancer, which will require regular monitoring, but does not need preventative treatment, like a mastectomy.
Told she was cancer free, following her last radiotherapy session last month, Helen is now putting her efforts into raising awareness of both cervical and breast cancer.
She said: ‘I didn’t go for my smear test immediately when I turned 25, not because I was scared, but because I was busy.
‘I would advise people always to go straight away, though, as it could save your life.
‘And never let embarrassment hold you back. If I hadn’t been as brutally honest with my doctor about my symptoms as I was, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been diagnosed nearly as fast.
‘Now I’m looking forward to my wedding and to starting a family one day, but if I hadn’t been treated so quickly, my future could have looked very different.’