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Calendar girls
Thirteen brave, sassy and smart women became calendar girls last week to raise awareness about a brutal form of cancer that has touched them all.
Will I see my children grow up?" When Sarah Wilkinson was diagnosed with cervical cancer six years ago, it was the only question for the consultant who broke the news.
His answer was "yes", and Sarah, now in remission, wants other women to know that the disease can be beaten.
The mum-of-two, now 37, was one of 15 women who got together at Bigface Studio, in Shiney Row, recently to model for a calendar which will be sold to raise money to fight cervical cancer.
Sarah, who lives in Chester-le-Street, was 31 when doctors diagnosed her with a rare form of the cancer, a glandular tumour on her cervix.
She said: "It was ironic because life had started to settle down for me. I was happy and it was my fifth wedding anniversary with my husband Mark.
"But I was getting a lot of trouble with bleeding and I was really fed-up and went back to my GP. I told her I was very unhappy being told everything was fine because I didn't think it was, so she examined me and found a little lump.
"Within a fortnight I was seeing a consultant and within three weeks I was having a radical hysterectomy."
The blow of the diagnosis left Sarah angry and confused.
She said: "After they first told me I had cancer I would walk around the supermarket and see other people and think "Why me? Why me?"
"I'm a practising catholic but when I got cancer I turned my back on my beliefs for a while.
"I was so angry with everyone and it took me a while before I could go back to church.
"Now it's something that gives me comfort again."
But even though she was facing the worst, Sarah made the decision to take on a lead role with cervical screening in her job as a practice nurse.
She said: "It sounds strange but I wanted to bring it to the forefront because at that time not many people had heard of it or understood it.
"Personally I was worried about telling people I had cervical cancer in case they thought it was dirty or related to sex somehow. I was scared people would think I'd slept around."
Sadly, cancer was just the start of Sarah's health problems.
Following her radical hysterectomy, she began to have bowel problems and was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Further tests showed she did not have bowel cancer but doctors had to remove her bowel as it had been damaged by her initial operation to treat the cervical cancer.
She was then diagnosed with lymphedema, a condition which causes fluid to build up in different parts of the body and tissue to swell.
Sarah said: "My foot just ballooned up a year ago. When I was diagnosed with cervical cancer the doctors did tests on my lymph nodes to see if it had spread, which damaged them, and means fluid can build up in my leg."
With regular treatment for her lymphedema at St Oswald's Hospice, in Gosforth, Sarah continues to work part time as a nurse.
And with the support of her mum, Susan Baker, husband Mark and daughters, Lily, eight, and six-year-old Eve, she has rebuilt her life.
Sarah said: "It was my children who made me keep going. If it weren't for them I might have jumped off a bridge but I had to carry on for them.
"I didn't tell them I had cancer though, I told them I had a poorly tummy.
"Over two years I went into hospital eight times. It was all they knew.
A parent whose daughter goes to Eve's school told me that Eve had told her daughter that she prayed for me every day.
"I find it very difficult when people say I'm brave. I'm not brave at all. I did what I had to do but it was the surgeons who saved me.
"Back then, every single day cancer was in my head, now it's not."
Read more in today's Echo
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Weather for Sunderland
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
