By Ng Wan Ching

SHE now gives this advice on cervical cancer: Go for regular Pap smear tests and don't delay treatment.

Madam Siti Fatimah Anon (above), 35, is speaking from painful experience. Nine years ago, after suffering persistent headaches, she was diagnosed with second-stage cervical cancer.

She was seven months' pregnant with her fourth child at the time.

Her doctor's advice was to have an abortion, then surgery to remove the cancer and start chemotherapy.

It was a huge shock to the young woman, who was still in her mid-20s then. Despite the advice, Madam Siti continued with her pregnancy.

'It was a boy and I really, really wanted another boy,' said Madam Siti who already a son and two daughters.

Her baby boy was born a month early.

But even after the birth, Madam Siti, who had her first child at 17, did not seek treatment for her cancer.

'I stayed at home for a year because I could not believe that it was happening to me - that I had cancer,' she said.

In particular, she wrestled with the idea that her womb needed to be removed.

'I felt I was too young not to have a womb, It also meant I could not have any more children,' she said.

Finally, after one year of waiting and suffering from pain and discomfort in her abdominal area, Madam Siti dragged herself to the doctor.

She underwent surgery to remove her womb and then went on chemotherapy treatment, which proved to be extremely rough going.

Graphic: ST

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