City Drives To Stop Women Skipping Cervical Cancer Screenings

“My children were two and five and there was a real possibility I wouldn’t be around to see them in a couple of years time .... “

A drive's been launched to help save more lives of women across Leeds who still aren't getting tested for cervical cancer.

Jenny Croston from Wetherby was diagnosed last year - months after she forgot to go to her smear test.

She's not alone - 20% of women here miss their screenings and those numbers have risen for the second year running.

Jenny doesn't want any other woman to go through what she did.

“For reasons best known to me at the time I didn’t go and I’ve got no particular excuse other than at the time I was a busy working mum. I found time to do all sorts of other things, but not to go for a smear

“My children were two and five and there was a real possibility I wouldn’t be around to see them in a couple of year’s time and it was just the most desperate awful time imaginable.”

By the time doctor's finally discovered Jenny's cancer, there was a real chance she might not survive.

“It probably wasn’t until about three or four weeks after my diagnosis that it really hit me and I started to understand about the severity of the illness and what my survival chances were - and at that stage they weren’t very good at all and it was horrifying.

• “Had I gone for a smear that previous September things would have been much different’ I still would have had cancer but the tumour would have been much smaller and the treatment would have been much less life altering … I am pretty damn furious with myself to be honest. “*

For more information about cervical screening, visit the NHS website.