I thought my contraception was behind a weird symptom - actually it was cancer that rapidly kills half of all victims
A 26 year-old woman with advanced cervical cancer has warned women never to miss regular smear tests—after she mistook her symptoms for complications caused by the contraceptive coil.
Jasmin McKee, from Southampton, began to experience bleeding after sex in February last year, but assumed it was the result of a recent procedure to fit her intrauterine device (IUD).
The financial operations manager had also 'put off' her cervical cancer screening for a few months due to nervousness about the procedure.
'I'd had quite heavy periods and bad back pain and would be really tired but I always put it down to hormones and my period,' she said.
'The doctors did give me a really long sheet of information about potential side effects [of the coil] but I didn't read it.
'No one ever wants to think the worst so that's why I didn't really think anything of the bleeding and just brushed it off.'
But when she eventually did attend her cervical screening, which is offered to all women aged 25 to 64 on the NHS, doctors discovered abnormal cells.
This led to a biopsy which determined the cells were 'high risk' of developing into cancer.
Subsequent blood tests and scans led to a diagnosis of stage three cervical cancer in September 2024—which meant the the disease has spread outside of the cervix, typically to the pelvic wall or to nearby lymph nodes.
Only half of patients who have their cancer spotted at this stage will live for more than five years.
Ms McKee decided against having a hysterectomy or starting chemotherapy to safeguard her chances of having children one day.
Instead, she underwent laser treatment to remove the tumours.
It's like the world stops moving a little bit,' Ms McKee said of her diagnosis.
'They're using all these big words and talking at you in a way that's really hard to grasp.
'It's that numb feeling, I don't think I've stopped feeling like that. It's like I'm living in 'the in-between'.
Unfortunately, the laser treatment failed to destroy all of the cancer.
So in February this year the festival-lover began radiotherapy in attempt to destroy more of the disease, and underwent egg freezing to preserve her fertility.
She has since undergone two cycles of chemotherapy and decided to donate her hair to the Little Princess Trust charity, along with £2,000 she has raised.
'I thought, if I'm going to lose my hair I might as well do it on my terms and do something good with it,' she said.
'The doctor said it was likely I won't be able to have children naturally and that's the worst outcome for me.
'I'm someone that goes to a lot of festivals and gigs and I've had to cancel all my festivals this year so that's quite upsetting.
'The financial burden is worrying. Luckily I'm working at the moment but as the treatment goes on I'm not going to be able to work.
Ms Mckee is urging people to go for life-saving cervical screenings as soon as they turn 25.
'I'm grateful I had the cervical screening done,' she said. 'If I hadn't had it done then I probably would've just kept on putting it off.
'They're quite persistent in sending letters and texts and stuff to say you're due for a smear test.
'You can sit and overthink it and you might read other women's experiences online but it's so easy to do. It's literally 10 to 15 minutes of your time and it can save your life.'
Roughly two women in Britain every day die from cervical cancer, which famously killed TV personality Jade Goody at the age of just 27.
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.
But 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.
In about 99 per cent of cases, cervical cancer is caused by an infection of a high-risk type of human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted via sexual activity.
There are more than 100 types of HPV, and only around 30 can affect the genital area.
Many people never show symptoms, as they can arise years after infection, and the majority of cases go away without treatment.
However, in some cases, it can cause the genital tissues to grow abnormally, resulting over many years in cervical cancer.
There is a vaccine for HPV.
It is more than 80 per cent effective and available in much of the developed world.
It is a two-dose vaccine, now available for children between ages 11 and 12. The shots come 12 months apart.
For people who missed that window, a three-dose shot is available to young people aged 15 to 26.
The vaccine has been offered to girls in England and Wales since September 2008 before being widened to include boys since 2019.
All women in the UK aged between 25 and 64 are also invited for regular cervical screenings, which serve as the primary way of diagnosing.
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