Hi I'm Helen, I suffered a devastating head injury which resulted in stroke & hemiplegia - a severe disability in 1994, I kept trying to explain to the Dr's & nurses that something was wrong as I kept bleeding constantly, not just monthly, but they said I was far too ill to have this investigated so it had to wait till I was out of hospital & finally back to work, I was then diagnosed with cervical cancer stage 3.  I went through external & internal radiotherapy & was given the all clear 10 years later.  I was told I would be very unlucky for it to return at this late stage but it did! I was told that my only course of action for a cure was major surgery the removal of my bowel & or bladder, I declined & changed my diet, took loads of supplements meditated & agreed with the oncologists that I would have the tumor removed if it could be done without affecting anything else, I had an investigation under anasthetic & was told it had spread so this would not be possible so I decided to go down the chemo route with help & advice from a brilliant nutritionist, my oncologist was dead against me following her advice but I was feeling so much better so I went with my gut feeling & followed her advice, the oncologist gave me a 2% chance of the chemo working he advised that I would require 6 rounds of taxol carbo platin, according to Macmillan one of the hardest regimes there is, anyway they gave me an MRI scan after 3 rounds & decided I should have the 4th round as it was already booked in & it would take time to get the MRI results.  I rang my specialist nurse & she was delighted to report an amazingly good result, the radiologist reported that the cancer had shrunk to nothing & in his view the dark shadow which remained was probably scarring from the radiotherapy.  I later saw my oncologist who said he didn't know how this had happened! He put the shadow down to remaining cancer said they had never promised a cure, he said I could choose how I wanted to move on, regular checks or ? He decided there was not much point in continuing chemo, better to save any treatments in case the may be needed in the future. I decided that I would forego checks but would keep my specialist nurse as a point of contact if I ever need to be re referred, I also arranged funding & iscador treatment via the UCLH which was the treatment my Mother went through after suffering ovarian cancer, it boosts the immune system.  I still suffer side effects from the chemo, I don't think the tiredness ever completely goes away & living with the oncologists advice that in their view it wil come back I find hard, Macmillan were extremely helpful to start with but clearly have more needy patients than they can deal with so they discharged me.  I do feel at a bit of a loss & very alone, I try to stay well with healthy diet exercise, monthly accupuncture sessions & anything else I can find to throw at it.  I am very determinned to prove that I can keep it at bay but their gloomy prognosis does often come back to haunt me.