Reija Sillanpaa’s journey
In March 2019 my life changed forever.
I had noticed some changes to my periods. They had become a lot heavier and painful. I had also started getting lower back pain and feeling tired all the time.
I went to see my GP who referred me to a gynaecologist for further investigation. I was given an ultrasound which revealed there were abnormalities, and after a biopsy I was diagnosed with womb cancer. It was stage 3c at that time which meant it had spread from the womb to the surrounding lymph nodes.
I’d had quite a bad feeling about everything in the lead up to my diagnosis so when I got told what my results were, I was half expecting it to be bad news. Being told you have cancer is so hard to process, it’s always going to be a shocking thing to hear and one of my first thoughts was how was I going to tell my parents.
Within two weeks of the diagnosis I had a hysterectomy to take out my womb, ovaries and fallopian tubes.
I was then referred to The Royal Marsden where I commenced seven months of treatment. I was given six chemotherapy sessions, 25 rounds of radiotherapy and two sets of brachytherapy, an internal radiotherapy, to ensure the cancer was well and truly gone.
What really struck me about The Royal Marsden is how thorough everything was. I had problems with my platelet levels, and they sent me for further investigation and genetic tests. I’m quite young to be diagnosed with this type of cancer and the genetic tests showed that I’ve got Lynch Syndrome, which puts me at risk of certain cancers including womb cancer.
The care I had was amazing and the teams did everything they could to ensure I had the best possible treatment. All the staff were lovely, so nice, upbeat and positive, and they all went out of their way to make me feel as comfortable as I could possibly be – I can’t praise them enough.
I'm glad to say my recent CT scan and tests were all clear with no sign of the disease, and it is now just over a year since all my treatment finished. I made sure to celebrate being one-year cancer free.
My next check-up is in January 2021 and then I’ll be back at The Royal Marsden for six-monthly check-ups after that.
Hearing the words ‘you have cancer’ was the worst moment in my life. But I’ve come back happier and healthier.
My own experience left me with an urge to support the amazing work and research that is carried out at The Royal Marsden in Sutton and Chelsea. In August 2021 my partner and I are taking on an epic bike ride across Europe to raise money for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. My partner is a keen cyclist so I can thank him for coming up with such a crazy idea. We will be starting the ride in Nordkapp in Norway and cycling all the way to Punta de Tarifa in Spain.
Since my diagnosis, I have wanted to raise awareness around womb cancer because it’s not as well known. I had also had symptoms for a lot longer than I realised but at the time I had no idea these were related to womb cancer. It’s so important to catch cancers early when your chance of successful treatment is higher, so the more people know about what to look out for and when to visit the GP, the better.