Emotional Lisa Maffia reveals her mum’s terminal diagnosis as she faces agonising wait for the all clear
SO Solid Crew star Lisa Maffia has opened up about her mum’s terminal cancer diagnosis as she faces an agonising wait for her own test results.
The 41-year-old singer can’t stop sobbing as she admits she’s “overwhelmed” by her own “traumatic” cancer scare after watching her beloved mum Shirley’s health decline.
Lisa was diagnosed with abnormal cells at her smear test in March and had a colposcopy procedure yesterday to have them removed.
But she now faces an agonising three month wait to find out if the cells are cancerous.
The stress was too much for Lisa to bear yesterday who felt “overwhelmed and panicked” before her hospital appointment.
“My mum had cervical cancer that’s spread all over her body and she now has terminal cancer,” she sobs in an exclusive interview with The Sun Online.
Lisa’s 65-year-old mum missed her smear test for five years and so she was only diagnosed with cervical cancer when she noticed a pain in her leg and constant bleeding.
“She’s quite a proud and self-conscious person and gets embarrassed,” Lisa explains.
“Going to the doctors and getting a smear she thought it was quite invasive and she put it off.”
But Shirley’s embarrassment almost cost her her life.
“Cancer can grow so quickly, by the time she started to get an ache in her leg and the constant bleeding that alerted her to go to the doctors – it was two years too late,” Lisa sobs.
“She had cervical cancer and it had spread to her lymph node glands and collar bone.”
Shirley fought cancer with everything she had and she had so much chemotherapy and radiotherapy that she lost a kidney.
She was in remission for seven years before it came back all over her body and is now unable to undergo any more treatment and is living with terminal cancer.
“I’ve watched it tear my mum’s body apart in pain all because she missed a test that takes five minutes and it’s done, it can save your life,” Lisa says.
“Even if it is there, you have the first option of getting the cells burnt away and you can catch it quickly and you can live a normal life again.”
What is a smear test and how can abnormal cells be detected?
A smear test - or cervical screening is carried out to check for abnormal cells on the cervix.
If any abnormal cells are found, these can be removed – to stop them becoming cancerous.
This is a preventative measure, and does not mean you already have cancer.
If you are between the ages of 25 and 49 you should go for a smear test every three years. If you are aged between 50 and 64 then it’s every five years, while women over the age of 65 are only invited if they have an abnormal test.
Get tested
If you don’t have a smear test and you have abnormal cells then these can develop into cancer.
Cancer Research UK states that changes in your cells doesn’t always mean that you have cancer.
It states: “The changed cells often go back to normal by themselves. But in some women, if not treated, these changes could develop into cancer in the future.
“It is very rare for an abnormal result to show that a cancer has already developed, especially if you have been having regular screening.”
If you do have normal cells these can be removed before they develop into cancer.
Removing them means they will not turn into cancer. Usually the size of the cells that will be removed are the size of a finger tip.
Issues during testing
Problems can also sometimes occur during testing and you may be told that you need to repeat the test – this doesn’t mean you have cancer.
This could mean that there was an interference with the test which stopped it from working properly.
Problems that may have occurred include there not being enough cells on the sample or if the cervix was inflamed at the time of testing.
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Lisa knows that she is prone to cervical cancer and is now determined to make sure her daughter Chelsea, 24, gets tested privately before the NHS will offer her a test at 25.
“It’s so important to get it checked – in the space of five years it is so easy to contract terminal cancer,” she said.
“It is so easy to put these things off but a smear test is so quick and simple and it could save your life.”