A Mum diagnosed with cervical cancer has claimed medics dismissed her symptoms as 'stress and hormones'. 

Holly Pardue, from Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, began suffering persistent bleeding after welcoming her third child last January and believed it to be a postpartum period.

But after the bleeding failed to subside six weeks later, the 31-year-old visited her GP twice who prescribed her contraceptive pills. 

She also claimed she was told it was likely due to 'stress and hormones' and advised her to 'get better nights' sleep' and 'go for some walks'.

It was only after she said, she pushed to have another smear test — despite one in 2023 giving her the all-clear — that medics believed she had early stage cervical cancer.

But days later she was dealt a devastating blow after scans showed the disease was not only in her cervix but had spread to her lymph nodes around her pelvis and hips. 

She has since undergone intensive chemotherapy, radiotherapy and brachytherapy — a form of radiation therapy — with her treatment ending in October. 

The dental treatment coordinator now faces a tense wait until March to discover if it was successful and has taken to social media to encourage those who may be experiencing similar symptoms to get them checked out. 

Recalling her terrifying ordeal, she said: 'He [the doctor] did say to me after I had these tests done, 'I think it's just stress and hormones.

''You've just had a baby, just try and get some better nights' sleep, go out on some walks and hopefully things will die down.'

'When he said that I felt really disappointed. I did appreciate that there had been tests done that weren't showing any concern in any areas.

'However for me. I've never been the type to take a pill to cover an issue. 

'To me the bleeding was happening for a reason and I wanted to know what that reason was.

'People refer to it as mum's intuition, when their baby is poorly they just know and I feel like I definitely have that with myself.

'We have trust in doctors, of course we should, however you also have to have that element of trust in yourself and if you're feeling like something isn't right and you're not happy with the answer you need to be able to advocate for yourself.'

She added: 'Him [the doctor] telling me to have a better night's sleep and go for walks and stuff that didn't feel right to me. That didn't feel like an appropriate course to fix this issue.

'I had to advocate for myself and I said, 'look, I'm not happy'. That is really hard for some people, to go against someone who, of course, they know best essentially, I do appreciate that.

'I did say I wanted to have my smear test done, he said your previous smear test was okay the last time you were looked at.

'I knew that something was wrong. I knew there was something else going on and I'm glad I trusted in myself and spoke up.

'We'd be looking at another year until my next smear and already I've done my treatment for my cancer. 

'It's scary to think that I'd be waiting another year to find out that I've even got cancer.'

Cervical cancer is the 14th most common cancer in females in the UK, affecting roughly 3,300 people every year.

But the disease is often called a 'silent killer' because its symptoms can be easily mistaken for less serious problems, such as heavy periods and exhaustion.

Roughly two women in Britain every day die from cervical cancer.

However, if the signs are recognised early, the chance of surviving for at least five years is roughly 95 per cent.

This drops to 15 per cent if the cancer is detected at later stages, when it has spread to other areas of the body.

Heavier periods, bleeding after sex, between periods, or after menopause, and pain during sex, or in general, particularly in your lower back, pelvis, or lower abdomen are all symptoms of the disease. 

Around eight in 10 people will get HPV at some point in their life and their body will clear it without any problems, according to the NHS. 

However, 13 out of the 150 varieties of the virus stay in the body for a long time and are known to cause 99.7 per cent per cent of cervical cancers.

Doctors initially believed Ms Pardue's cancer was Stage 1B, but after further scans, realised the cancer was not only in her cervix, but also in the lymph nodes around her pelvis and hips.

She was given her formal diagnosis of Stage 3C1 on 17 July 2024 and began a six-week course of chemotherapy around a month later, before starting radiotherapy and brachytherapy.

She said: 'To be told your stage was so high, it felt like a death sentence.

'I held it together walking out of the hospital because I thought, I do not want people watching me cry as I walk out of here.

'The minute we shut the car door I burst out crying. I said to my partner, "I'm going to die".

'He said "no you're not, don't be silly. We've got treatment, it's going to be absolutely okay", but of course you don't feel like that when you've just been told this.

'It's definitely a really intense treatment plan and it all happened very quickly.

'Mentally I feel good which is why I feel like I'm in a good position now to start speaking about my experience and start raising awareness about it.

'However I've definitely got some damage to my hips and pelvis, walking around hurts, which isn't ideal at 31. It's not really what I was expecting.

'I am also going into early menopause. That was a long-term side effect of the treatment, that you would be infertile after the treatment and you would also be going into early menopause.

'That's really a tricky thing to juggle being so young, it's not something I had on my to-do list any time soon.'

One of Ms Pardue's previous smear tests had shown she had HPV and abnormal cells and in 2022 she underwent a LLETZ procedure to remove them.

She claimed doctors told her these were precancerous cells but after another smear test in 2023 was clear she was told everything was fine and she could go ahead with getting pregnant.

Ms Pardue said: 'It was quite difficult to know what was pregnancy and what was something more sinister.

'I did have pelvic hip pain, but my baby was born early at 9lb 6oz, so he was quite a big baby.

'You would have thought something may have flagged up at some point that was abnormal.'

Currently women aged 25 to 49 in the UK are invited for a cervical screening check at their GP surgery every three years. 

For those aged between 50 and 64, it is offered every five years. 

Screening is arguably all the more important for women aged 34 and above, who did not receive a vaccine that protects against the vast majority of cervical cancers as part of the school programme introduced in 2008.

Depending on the result of the smear test, some women may be recalled earlier than the three-year routine intervals.

But screening uptake overall remains low. Only around 70 per cent of eligible women, roughly 4.6million, turn up for their scheduled test. 

Embarrassment is a factor, according to research by cervical cancer charities. 

For half of the 1.3 million no-shows every year, getting time off work and finding a convenient time to fit in an appointment are the other reasons they miss it.  

In 2023, the NHS pledged to drastically slash the number of women struck by cervical cancer by 2040, vowing to boost uptake of both the HPV vaccine and cervical screening.

However, elimination would technically be achieved when fewer than four women per 100,000 are diagnosed every year. 

For comparison, the rate currently stands at 9.5 women, equating to around 2,600 annually.

This means around 1,100 women a year — or three a day — could still be dealt the heartbreaking diagnosis if the health service's elimination goal is met.

In the UK, the HPV jab was offered to all girls in school year 8 since September 2008. But eligibility was only expanded to boys in year 8 from September 2019. 

Experts have credited the HPV vaccine for helping to virtually eradicate the disease among women.

However, the jab, like all vaccines, does not offer 100 per cent protection, so women who have it are still recommended to have their regular smear tests.