SEVENTEEN years ago when she was hit with a cervical cancer diagnosis Marcia Campbell reeled in shock then denial.

A heart-to-heart with a doctor, who explained the condition to her and treatment options, along with the support of a friend she now calls an angel, led to her becoming one of the few cervical cancer survivors willing to be a voice for the group health officials say stays silent out of shame.

Typically women with cervical cancer present with abnormal bleeding; bleeding after sex; bleeding in-between periods; abnormal discharge that’s persistent, difficult to manage; weight loss; pain; and even renal failure. But Campbell, now in her 60s, had no such indicators.

“I did not have any symptoms; I just went in for my regular pap smear. I would normally go in every year and I missed two years and then when I did it, that’s when I was diagnosed,” she told editors and reporters during a recent meeting of a Jamaica Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in the Corporate Area.

Those two gap years, she said, proved to be her undoing.

“Sometimes we might see it as nothing, [we might say], ‘Every time I go it’s okay, so I don’t have to go this year.’ So maybe on my part that was deliberate, and then when I went and did it they did not call me, but I kept checking on my results. When I went in they said, ‘We saw abnormalities,’ that’s when I was referred to the oncology clinic,” Campbell said.

Reflecting on what went through her mind at the time of the diagnosis in January 2007, the then 46–year-old woman said, “I was confused, I was saying to myself, ‘No, it has to be something else.’ I did not accept it. I was trying to say, ‘No, maybe it’s because it’s just after my period why they are seeing an abnormality.’ ”

The diagnosis was followed by her mother’s passing a day later, and Campbell said she kept silent as she grappled with that loss.

“I did not speak about it, I don’t know, but I will just brush things aside and say I am not accepting this. The day when I actually got the confirmation, my mother passed away [the day after], so I was more focused on my mother’s passing than the result that I had recently obtained,” she said.

Some four months later was when she told her immediate family.

“I kept it from everybody until Mother’s Day that May. I got up for church as usual and I just wrote on a big calendar and left it on the counter for my two kids. When I got home you could not recognise their faces the way they were crying, ‘Mommy, why didn’t you tell us?’ They said ‘Mommy, you should have told us about it, you are going through all of this,’ ” she recalled.

“I said I was trying to do it on my own, not that I was hiding it, but I was waiting for the proper time to say it to them. From there the support was overwhelming,” Campbell reminisced.

Now cancer-free, Campbell campaigns on one word — awareness.

“Screening is important, and your lifestyle too, because you have some people, if you speak to them now they would say, ‘One to pay the rent, one to pay whatever,’ if they are doing that they don’t think about the impact later on, they don’t use protection for those who got the illness via sexual transmission,” she said.

“For people who do not know, there has to be awareness about proper hygiene. Someone comes over to spend the weekend with your family and you see that person as a friend but you don’t know, be careful of how you share your hygiene products,” she coached further.

According to medics, there are over 200 types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and about 12 of that number lead to cervical cancer. Of those 12 strains, two are responsible for causing 70 per cent of the cases of cervical cancer.

HPV is mostly transmitted sexually but can also be transmitted by fomites, which are objects or materials likely to carry infection when shared. For example, an infected individual uses a wash cloth in their genital area HPV can be passed to another individual who uses the same wash cloth.

For Campbell, it is imperative that individuals are made aware that there are other ways than sex through which the virus can be transmitted.

“I don’t know how much Jamaica Cancer Society or the Ministry of Health are interacting with people in the inner city. When you go to the inner city and you have up to 10 persons in a little house and an individual might be searching for their wash rag and when unable to find it decide to use the one belonging to another family member [this could spread the virus],” she pointed out.

“And then some parents, if the child is diagnosed with cervical cancer, the first thing that will come to their mind is that, that child is sexually active, but the poor child is innocent of the accusation. The awareness is critical in the inner-city communities,” added Campbell.

Noting that fear and pride might be other deterrents she said, “I was afraid as well to do my pap smear, so I gathered my courage and I went each time. When you hide away until something happens it won’t be one nurse alone or one doctor, it will be many doctors and by that time the pride will reveal itself.”

Campbell said creative ways must be found to reach Jamaicans with the message of prevention and/or early intervention.

The Jamaica Cancer Society’s Shullian Brown, in the meantime, said the stigma associated with lower body cancers have been keeping women silent.

“I’ve worked at the cancer society since 2008, we have been here [Jamaica Observer boardroom] many times, we have brought prostate cancer survivors, breast cancer survivors; cervical cancer survivors do not share. So when Ms Campbell agreed to be a part of this it was a significant milestone, because this does not normally happen. In 18 years she is the third cervical cancer survivor [going public]. It’s not that they don’t exist, they just don’t come forward,” said Brown.

Gynaecologic Oncologist Dr Natalie Medley wants the cloak of secrecy discarded.

“We should put aside all stigma relating to cervical cancer being a sexual disease and it is a dirty word and just ensure that women are screened. People are of the notion that it is a dirty disease and these are dirty women, but we should put aside all that and remember that every woman can be affected, so every woman needs to be screened,” said Dr Medley.

Meanwhile, Dr Anna Kay Taylor Christmas, gynaecologic oncologist at Victoria Jubilee Hospital, said Campbell should serve as an beacon for women.

“The number one thing that stops women from coming is fear of the pap smear test and fear of an abnormal result. Don’t be afraid, the test does not hurt, it might be a little uncomfortable, but it’s going to save you a lifetime of regret. We want to encourage everyone, when we treat you early you can bounce back, so that nobody will ever know you ever had cancer,” said Dr Christmas.