Ovarian Cancer screening offers North East women the chance of kids

A new Ovarian Cancer test could mean hundreds of north east women at risk can still have kids.

Women with a family history of cancer could soon be offered screening every 4 months to detect the signs earlier,

It would mean they didn't have to resort to hysterectomies.

Jo Blakeley from Barnard Castle took part in the test trials, after her mother and sister both died from Ovarian Cancer:

“I was concerned, for myself but also I didn’t want to think that I’d passed something nasty like that to my own daughters. That was the main worry really.”

In the North East, more than 300 women are diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer every year, and of that – more than half of women diagnosed will die from the disease.

It’s hoped this screening process will also be able to detect the invisible signs of ovarian cancer earlier, which could save lives.

Jo explains why she took part in the trials;

“I’d rather do whatever I can basically, and that’s how I took it really, that I was going to do whatever I could;

“A – to know the reality, and B – if there was anything I could do then I’d do something about it.”