Maureen Powell: "I want to make the most of life and don’t want to miss out on all the wonderful experiences that it brings us"

Maureen was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer last year, aged 50. It has not been an easy journey but after taking part in a clinical trial, she is now in remission and intends to make the most of life.

"Having lost my mother to ovarian cancer in 2009, I asked twice for genetic testing. I was so keen that this dreadful disease wouldn’t target me. I wasn’t considered a high risk as my family history only indicated one member with ovarian cancer, so I was refused. 

I believed I had a good awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer. I choose to be an advocate for symptoms awareness by highlighting it on social media, running a 10k to raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Action and when I turned 50 I wanted to do something significant and raised £3500 for female cancers, including Ovarian Cancer Action when I cycled 450km in Tanzania on a WomenVCancer challenge. 

Nothing could have prepared me for a stage 4 diagnosis two months later. They warn that the symptoms are subtle and this is so true. All the common symptoms didn’t apply to me. All I can recollect is that I had occasional feelings of nausea and one day whilst cycling my wedding ring flew off my hand yet I hadn’t lost weight. It was a few weeks later, I was cycling and I knew I was finding it more difficult than usual and noticed I felt bloated and what I’d describe as a bad orchestra performing in my abdomen. 

I got an emergency appointment with a GP and gave my family history. Thankfully the GP took a blood test measuring CA125 and within two days phoned to tell me it was significantly elevated. I was in shock but managed to get a CT scan that day. Those first few days were mentally torturous. Within a week of those obvious symptoms I was told that they had seen tumours on my ovaries. I was admitted to hospital to have four litres of ascites drained from my abdomen. 

I was absolutely devastated. You imagine life will follow a pattern to old age and in an instant, everything changes. After some research, I chose to go on the icon8b clinical trial. I was lucky because I tolerated chemotherapy well and walked at least three miles nearly every day. 

Since February I have been in remission. It has not been easy for me. I have had an added complication of a very large hernia after surgery and the psychological effects were overwhelming at times. I felt I had lost my whole identity. Since around May I have turned that around and try to make every day count. I’ve taken up tennis, sing in choirs, started a ladies’ cycle group and I’m travelling around the world. For me, it isn’t a gift to have cancer, it is a burden but I think I am being honest in saying that my focus is about enjoying more of the important things in life. I don’t want people to look at me and think 'Poor you, you don’t have a long life expectancy', but instead to think 'Wow, she made more of her life than most of us who live to a grand old age.'  

I’m still fighting for a long life and read about all new scientific evidence in the fight of this disease and plan to take part in this, but in the meantime, I want to make the most of life and don’t want to miss out on all the wonderful experiences that it brings us. 

I want to raise awareness for ovarian cancer because it receives so little publicity and funding compared to other cancers and hope that new treatments provide a more optimistic outlook for my daughter's future and others."