Willo Williams
My blogs
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Industry | Arts |
| Location | Blackburn, Lancashire, United Kingdom |
| Introduction | I am a cancer survivor - and some people find comfort in knowing I am still alive and well, long after the disease manifested itself in 1985. Initially I had a radium needle implant to my nether regions. 10 needles (like 2" nails) surgically implanted and left in situ for nearly a week. I became very badly burned and needed skin grafts, but survived the ordeal and returned to Zambia where I was then living. 18 months later at a routine check-up, my doctor discovered enlarged lymph nodes higher up and so it was back to the UK, where I had to have the dreaded colostomy. I decided to leave my husband and remain in Britain and so felt it necessary (if I was going to support my family) to return to college. During the first year of my course it was discovered I had carcinoma in situ of the cervix, but worse was yet to come; at the beginning of 1990 I developed pain in my pelvis and by the end of the year could hardly walk. The doctors mainly ignored the symptoms, but finally in December they diagnosed cancer secondaries in the bone, which had fractured my pelvis and I wasn’t expected to survive, however, I had radiotherapy, surgery and chemo - and graduated on schedule in 1991. |