By Rosalind Gibb

Last updated at 13:48, Friday, 17 April 2009

Three months or more. That’s how long doctors said the recuperation period would be, but Janice McCallum has had other ideas.

Janice McCallum with partner Eddie Brodie

Just six weeks after undergoing a radical hysterectomy, the spirited 39-year-old was not only up and about but enjoying a social life which would put those of us in rude health to shame.

Al Murray at The Sands Centre, Simply Red in concert in Newcastle, Carlisle Races – all in the space of one week.

But why not? Janice, from Morton, has good reason to be celebrating life once more.

The operation – which took place weeks after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer – was a success and she has been given the all-clear.

And while things have not been easy, with many dark moments along the way, ultimately Janice’s story is filled with hope.

The unexpected journey began in January, when Janice found she was bleeding between her periods.

Her partner Eddie Brodie had been reading about Jade Goody in the paper and saw she had experienced the same symptom, which set alarm bells ringing.

Even so, Janice was reluctant to make an appointment for a smear test, worrying it would be painful, but Eddie urged her to go.

“I was worried about how uncomfortable it would be but I look back now and I hardly felt a thing,” she says.

A succession of tests followed and Janice was diagnosed with cervical cancer on January 28, the day before her birthday.

Amid the shock and devastation there was one ray of hope: it had been caught early and was treatable.

Four weeks later Janice underwent a radical hysterectomy at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, a four-hour operation that involves removing the womb, part of the vagina, the cervix, plus lymph nodes around the womb which are tested to see if the cancer has spread.

“On the day of the operation I’d been with Eddie in the day room and when I got back the porter was waiting for me to go into theatre and I got a bit teary,” Janice recalls.

“It was earlier than I thought it was going to be. Eddie gave me a poem and that was the first time I started to well up.

“When I went down to theatre he walked down with me and held my hand the whole way there. He played with my hair and he said: I won’t let anything happen to you.”

For Eddie, that short walk was the hardest moment.

“Right up to the operation I was fine. I’d been positive right through it,” he says. “Then when I watched Janice wheeled away, that was the time it struck me: it was out of my hands. I felt helpless, I knew that’s as far as I could go.

“I watched her get led away and I could feel how scared she was. It was hard to keep a grip but I knew there was nothing more I could do.”

When he visited Janice for the first time after the operation, in the high dependency unit, he was relieved – and just a bit surprised – to find her chatting away to the nurse.

He jokes: “I think she was frightened in case she missed anything! The nurse said that by rights she shouldn’t be awake and chatting, but she was. Then they brought in a TV for her. I think Hollyoaks was on and that was it, she was happy!”

Janice laughs. “I remember being there but not what I was talking about. I was dosed up on all the pills and morphine.

“But by the second day I was able to sit on a chair and on the third day I was showering myself.”

Janice was making good progress and a few days later the couple were given the news they had been hoping for: the tests on the lymph nodes had come back negative and Janice was given the all-clear.

There was a setback, however, when she got an infection in her wound.

“My stomach was like a big red balloon and I had to get another drip put in and given more antibiotics,” she says.

“We always seemed to be taking two steps forward and one step back.

“I was told I’d have to stay in over the weekend and I was devastated. I just wanted to get home.”

Janice finally left hospital on March 9, but things didn’t go smoothly. “I had just mastered getting in and out of bed here when the wound started to open,” she recalls. “The antibiotics had run out and a district nurse came out. She was worried about a recurrence of the infection so took swabs but it came back all clear.

“I was advised not to push myself too much, and Eddie had to take another week off work to look after me. He couldn’t leave me here myself.

“Having someone at home is a blessing. I can’t stress how much of a difference that made. Carers get you back on your way to recovery, but they are not angels, they are just people.

“It’s been hard for him. We’ve both been stuck in the house and it was frustrating to see him a prisoner here too.”

One organisation that has proved invaluable for both Janice and Eddie is the Carlisle group, Cumbria Cancer Support, which meets at Morton Community Centre once a month.

The couple first attended the group in February, and Janice returned last week for the first time after her operation.

“Going back picked me up, it’s a good crack with them,” she says. “The people there have been through it too, directly or as carers.

“It’s not someone distant saying: this is how you might feel, it is people saying: this is how I felt.”

Eddie agrees. “Without the group, it would’ve been a longer and harder struggle,” he says. “It has made a big difference.”

Now Janice plans to put herself in a position to help others going through a similar experience.

“They have helped me and now I feel I can help others. If someone is on their own or they just want someone to talk to, I hope I can be there to chat to them over the phone or by email.

“I know that makes such a difference and I want to make myself available later in the year to help.”

Though she is still not 100 per cent, Janice is rediscovering her zest for life.

“The last two weeks have been much more active,” she smiles. “I’ve been getting more fresh air and getting back to normal.

“Going to the Races was an excellent day. It was gorgeous weather.

“On Saturday night we were so shattered, we were watching Britain’s Got Talent and fell asleep on the couch but it had been a great day.

“I’m definitely on the way to recovery and I do sometimes think how stupid I would have been if I hadn’t gone for the smear test.”

Eddie adds: “We still would have been in the dark at this stage, and gone into summer with a very different picture.

“It has been hard, a new experience that we still need to digest properly, but we realise how fortunate it has turned out to be.”

• Cumbria Cancer Support Carlisle meets on the second Thursday of each month at Morton Community Centre, Wigton Road, at 7pm. It is open to anyone who has been, or continues to be, affected by cancer. For more information, phone Alizon Blythe on 01228 675632.

First published at 05:25, Friday, 17 April 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk