A young dancer who thought she just had "women's pains" when she was feeling very tired actually had advanced cervical cancer.
Zoe Sargent, then 30, began bleeding heavily and was rushed to hospital after suffering fatigue for weeks.
The former barmaid, from Beverley, East Yorkshire, was diagnosed with the cancer and had to undergo three months of treatment.
"I had some light bleeding for a couple of months and some pains, but I didn’t think anything of it and thought they were normal pains women sometimes get," Zoe, now 31, told Hull Live .
"I was working in a pub over Christmas and I put it down to being tired and losing weight to the stress of the job.
"I booked into see my GP after slight bleeding, and they had booked me in for a scan to see if it was cysts or polyps, but before that could happen I was rushed to hospital.
"I could never have believed they would have told me I had stage three cancer."
But Zoe didn't have smear tests prior to this because of her lifestyle as a dancer.
The woman, who lives with her fiancé, Jimmy Hargreaves, said: "I was travelling around holiday parks and I wasn’t registered to a GP, and to be honest I never thought it was something I needed to do.
"Looking back it’s something I should have done. It’s not something I was scared of, but I just felt it was something I didn't need to do yet.
"It sounds stupid saying it now, but I was only 25 and I was never in one place to go and have the test."
Doctors also told Zoe her kidneys had failed. Now she must undergo an operation every six months to make sure the stents are working to avoid a catheter or colostomy bag having to be fitted.
However, she was told recently she had "reacted brilliantly" to the treatment and her tumour was no longer visible on any scans.
"I have to go and see my consultant in September to make sure the cancer has gone, but all of the radiotherapy and treatments have ended now,” she said.
"It’s so hard to get my head around how quickly everything has changed since January. For the past seven or eight months my life and my family’s lives have changed completely.
"From being rushed into hospital and not knowing what was going to happen to me, to being told I had reacted brilliantly to the treatment, it’s hard to grasp that it’s all over.
"How do you get back to life after getting over something like cancer? You can’t just switch back to what you used to do.
"It’s been so hard but the staff in ward 30 helped me so much."
Zoe’s mum, Carol Beardmore, is now hosting a night of live music to raise funds and say thank you to the staff on the ward.
"It’s such a difficult place to be," she said.
"Walking in on my first visit to see my daughter going through her treatment, words can’t describe it.
"But from the minute I went in the staff were incredible. They immediately told me they wanted to get my daughter out of there, and it felt like everyone was on your side.
"Zoe lost so much weight she couldn’t hold herself up, and she couldn’t eat, but the staff did everything they could to make her comfortable – they became like family.
"It is up to the ward what they spend the money on, but they do so much for people, we just wanted to say thank you."
