- At just five years old, Jemima’s stomach ache turned out to be ovarian cancer
- After becoming an ambassador for ovarian cancer awareness, Jemima faced another battle at 19 against thyroid cancer
- Now a passionate advocate, Jemima is sharing her story to raise awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms and the desperate need for an early detection test
Here Jemima Leydon, 22, from Rose Park, SA, tells her story in her own words.
Blowing out the pink candles on my fifth birthday cake, I shut my eyes and made a wish.
Having an Alice in Wonderland themed party,I was dressed as Alice. Mygrandma Joan was the RedQueen, and grandpa Johnthe White Rabbit.
Just five months later in October 2006, I began complaining of a sore tummy.
Putting it down to me catching a tummy bug, my mum Megan, then 37, wasn’t too worried.
Sitting around the dinner table with Mum, my dad Gavin, then 40, and brother Noah, three, two weeks
later though, the pain was agonising.
This time, Mum reached across and felt my belly. That’s when she discovered a lump the size of a fist located on the right side of my lower tummy area.
Mum phoned our neighbour, Emma, who was a GP, and she came over to examine me.
‘Let’s get scans done tomorrow,’ she said.
At the hospital I had an ultrasound and blood tests.
Fast tracking my results, they revealed a silent killer was behind my tummy pain.
‘Jemima has ovarian cancer,’ the doctor said gently to Mum and Dad.
While the disease is most common in older women, it can affect girls and people assigned female at birth of all ages.
Rushing me in for emergency surgery that afternoon, everything happened so quickly.
READ MORE: ‘I Drive A Booby Bus’
But Mum and Dad shielded me from the harsh reality of my diagnosis, saying nothing about cancer.
‘The doctors are going to fix your tummy,’ Mum comforted me.
She gave me a kiss, then I was wheeled into surgery to have my right ovary removed.
Coming to after a five hour op, I spent the next 10 days recovering in hospital before starting chemotherapy.
Taking it in turns, Mum and Dad shared their time between my bedside in hospital and caring for Noah at home.
But I always loved when Noah came to visit.
Playing board games on my hospital bed, we laughed and played until it was time to say goodbye.
Undergoing four rounds of chemo across four months, I was devastated when my long curly red hair began falling out.
‘It’s something that has to happen for you to get better,’ Mum soothed.
In March 2007, I finished my last round of chemo and, with no sign of cancer in my system, was officially on the road to recovery.
I’d still need follow-up tests once a month for five years before I could be declared cancer free.
Returning to school shortly after, I was the happiest and healthiest six-year-old, who loved to play netball and twirl around the dance studio.
READ MORE: ‘I took my girl to the GP for a bloated belly, but she was fighting for her life’
Five years later, in March 2012, aged 10, I was officially in remission.
Attending an Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) fundraising lunch in 2017 when I was 16, I met mum-of-two Letitia Linke, then 37, an ambassador for the cause who was also battling the disease.
That’s when I realised just how lucky I was to have survived my childhood cancer.
‘The survival rate is just 49 per cent,’ Letitia told me.
With no early detection test, most women are diagnosed when it’s too late, putting their symptoms down to menstruation or menopause.
‘I’m lucky to be alive,’ I whispered to Mum, sitting next to me.
I signed on to be an OCRF ambassador, and Letitia and I raised awareness for the foundation through the White Shirt campaign in May 2018.
After putting up an incredible fight, sadly in August that year Letitia lost her battle.
She was just 38.
Inspired to keep raising awareness, I created an Instagram page, @Jemima_ocrf.
There isn’t an early detection test for ovarian cancer, I shared in a post. In Australia, one woman dies every eight hours from ovarian cancer.
Wearing a short pink floral dress on October 31 that year, I headed to the Frocktober event, in honour of Letitia. Frocktober is Australia’s most fashionable month-long event to raise awareness and funds for vital ovarian cancer research.
READ MORE: ‘‘We’re the boob choir!’ How a devastating diagnosis turned to hope’
Two years later in July 2020, I visited an ear, nose, and throat specialist for a sinus issue, and the doctor had some concerns.
Feeling around my thyroid gland, he found a lump. ‘That shouldn’t be there,’ he said.
Sent for an ultrasound, within a week I had some much-needed answers.
‘The lump is thyroid cancer,’ the oncologist explained gently.
Not again! I thought, tears streaming.
Relief came after learning this cancer is slow growing and has a survival rate upwards of 97 per cent.
‘I’ve got this,’ I told my family.
Although terrified, I was confident that with their love and support
I could get through anything.
Back under the knife in August that year, doctors removed my thyroid gland, and after one round of radioactive iodine treatment, I was relieved I didn’t need chemo.
One year later, on August 2, 2021, I was declared cancer free.
I’m hoping to inspire other women to get tested.
By raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer, I hope we can change the heartbreaking statistics.
I was lucky to survive cancer twice, now I’m living life to the fullest!
