Caton woman’s fight against non-curable cancer

A routine smear test forced Claire Bowker to re-evaluate her whole life after being diagnosed with a non-curable cancer.
Claire Bowker.Claire Bowker.
Claire Bowker.

Claire was told the devastating news that she had follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a condition she is now learning to live with having been given a prognosis of 10 years.

Claire’s diagnosis came last October, after initially being told she had cervical cancer.

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“I went for a routine smear scan and when it came back I was told I had cervical cancer,” she said. “I then went for an MRI scan and from the results of that they said that they thought I had lymphoma as well.

“I had a biopsy to determine what type I had. Some types are curable and some, including mine, are treatable but not curable. I have been given 10 years but I am determined to beat that.”

Claire underwent four months of chemotherapy, followed by a hysterectomy to treat the cervical cancer.

She has now begun two years of maintenance therapy in a bid to keep the lymphoma at bay.

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She said: “The team at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary oncology unit have been brilliant. I have had a CT scan and all seems good at the moment. I am hopefully in remission.”

However, Claire, 40, has had to come to terms with the fact that her lymphoma could strike again at any time.

She said: “It’s like a ticking time bomb. You just don’t really know when it will come back. I don’t know what will trigger it and I just have to learn to live with it.

“For me now it’s more the psychological part of it, getting over what has happened and coming to terms with it.

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“I was determined that it wasn’t going to take over my life – but in the end it does.

“But I have had amazing support from my friends and family, and from a support group on Facebook.

“It’s really good to focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t. I am normally very active so it was hard, but I got to know when I could do things.

“It has been tough and I have had my down days where I have struggled but I have taken every day as it comes.”

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Claire, who lives in Caton and went to school in Hornby, recently undertook a 26-mile bike ride with friends and family, raising £500 for the Lymphoma Association – which marks its annual Lymphatic Cancer Awareness Week from September 14 to 20 – in the process.

And she is hoping to return to her work as a community occupational therapist soon.

“Just getting back to normal life is helpful,” she said. “That was the hardest thing for me; just being able to go out with my friends or for a walk, things that you take for granted so much.

“I know I have got more to come and I haven’t won the war but I have won this battle.”

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Claire is now urging other women to make sure they attend their smear tests.

She said: “It’s been good for other people because some of my friends have said that because of me they have gone to their GP about a lump or something else they were worried about.

“I have been telling all my female friends that they have to keep their smear test appointments.”

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