I have never joined a forum before and wish I had done so earlier. My mum was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2015 after 6 months of regular visits to the GP because of difficulty eating, nausea and abdominal pain. The GP's diagnosed mum with IBS and continued to do so despite the fact that the medications did not work and they failed to monitor mums weight, along with many other failings. In the end my Dad went with her to the GP to explain how concerned we were and they finally began to complete more investigations. However there were also issues with the tests they completed, for example they did not pick up the ovarian cysts after several scans and investigations. I understand that ovarian cancer is a difficult thing to diagnose, but in my mums case so many signs and symptoms were present and I feel the GP's lack of training and experience let her down. My mum was 55 years old and had never been diagnosed with IBS before so according to NICE guidance the GP should have completed a CA125 blood test and performed other investiagations to monitor for ovarian cancer. I feel all of these mistakes caused my mum to recieve a late diagnosis, which significantly effected her prognosis. The problems with her treatment did not stop there, we were treated disgustingly at times and I saw very little compassion in most of the healthcare professionals that looked after her at the beginning. We recieved bad news everytime we went to the hospital, but my mum was a fighter and remained so positive. However she never wanted to go to bloody hospital because she feared what she would be told next. The initial plan was for mum to recieve 3 cycles of chemo and then have an operation to remove the tumour, however after the third cycle we were told that mum was too weak to recieve the operation and so she would have another 3 cycles of chemo. This hit mum hard for a few days but as I said she was soo determined and soon put a positive spin on it, saying she was happy because she would continue to see her friends she had made at the chemo clinics. She had her operation in July after waiting a long time due to waiting lists. Unfortunately it didn't go to plan, the cancer was disseminated so we were told an op wouldn't be possible. The plan was for more chemo but mum deteriorated in the coming weeks and was admitted to hospital, we were told the cancer had spread so much that it was blocking the bowel. Her oncologist explained there was nothing more they could do and handed us over to the pallitive care team and district nurses. Mums positivity went and she decided she wanted to die, this was incredibly difficult for all of us. She passed away 2 weeks later on the 6/09/16.

At the time of my mums diagnosis I was training to be a childrens nurse in London, I was in my final year. I felt completely out of control and useless, I could not do anything for my mum and family and felt like I knew absolutley nothing. This past 9 months have been horrific, I have never been under so much pressure and stress and watching my mum slowly dieing was indescribable. I feel completely and utterly let down by a service which I have worked so hard to become a part of. My mum gave everything she had to dad and us kids, she was wise, beautiful, caring and was a mother to everyone. I have a lot of family and friends around me who have supported me, however nothing anyone says makes me feel better at the moment and I know there are more hard times to come. I really don't want anyone else to go thorugh the same as we did so I want people to be aware that the main symtoms of ovarian cancer are constant bloating, abdominal pain, nausea and difficulty eating and if you are a woman aged over 55 and presenting with IBS symptoms you should be monitored for ovarian cancer.