Mother-of-one Beverley Hicks was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2001.

The ophthalmic nurse had been suffering with abdominal pain for some time. At first her doctors diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome and Beverley was treated accordingly. But the pain failed to go away.

One afternoon, while picking up her son from school, Beverley suffered a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot in the lungs. She collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

Hysterectomy

Beverley had several tests to try to determine the cause of the pain and results showed that there was a problem.

Beverley was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and when she had recovered from the operation she started a course of chemotherapy.

Making a difference

Beverley is now fit and healthy and has done lots of fundraising for Cancer Research UK including running the London Marathon for us in 2005.

She says: "People are very aware of breast cancer, but many women are affected by ovarian cancer in the UK today. I got through the disease and I am now fit and healthy. I want to say that people do recover from cancer and I am living proof.

"My family and friends were terrific and helped me so much, particularly my father and stepmother. They helped me to keep positive throughout my treatment and this made such a difference.

"Unfortunately I have lost both my father and stepmother since my recovery and I am sorry that they are not here to see me so well again.

"I am happy to promote the work of Cancer Research UK and want to raise funds to help."

Support us

Help more people like Beverley survive cancer by donating online or setting up a Direct Debit with us.

Why not do some fundraising for us or take part in one of our events?

Find out more

Find out more about our current research.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with cancer, you will find more detailed information on our patient information site, CancerHelp UK.

Share your story

If you have experienced cancer and would like to share your story for publicity purposes, we would be delighted to hear from you.