It was during a dream solo three-month trip to the Bahamas in July 2022 that Louisa Lloyd realised something was seriously wrong. The keen footballer had been there seven weeks when excruciating stomach pains and two-week-long heavy periods cut her travels short.
‘In the two months before the holiday I’d had milder symptoms but ignored them – but now they were far worse,’ recalls Louisa, now 36. ‘One night I was in so much pain I couldn’t get up off the floor.’
Once back home, her GP suggested the pain was constipation, and the symptoms seemed to ease. But in September the pain returned and was even worse.
‘At my uncle’s birthday I was squirming in such agony that I couldn’t eat. Paracetamol didn’t touch the sides,’ says Louisa, from Farnborough, Hampshire.
Distraught, she went back to the GP. ‘By this point I was bleeding a phenomenal amount, and a raised bump had appeared to the right side of my navel – over the space of a few days it had grown to the size of half a tennis ball. In a lot of pain, I became convinced something serious was wrong, and at last I was referred to hospital.’
She went for a blood test – used to detect ovarian cancer early through the analysis of biomarkers shed by cancer cells.
‘The nurse who gave me my results said: ‘Your protein levels are through the roof, I’m afraid there’s a high chance it’s cancerous.’ I was devastated.’ Aged 21, Louisa had cared for her grandmother, Jenny, when she was dying of ovarian cancer, and knew her symptoms matched.
However, her doctors were less convinced. ‘A consultant reassured me that high protein levels could be caused by ‘cysts’ scans had shown on my ovaries, which explained why I had that bump. She said it was unlikely to be cancer.’
Despite further visits to hospital, biopsies, two ultrasound scans and more blood tests, nothing worrying was detected. But Louisa was in constant pain. ‘I kept telling them I was worried it was ovarian cancer, just like my nan had, but the consultants kept saying that at 33, I was too young.’
Symptoms of ovarian cancer include abdominal bloating, persistent pelvic pain, changes in bowel habits, and a frequent need to urinate. But these can mimic other gynaecological conditions such as fibroids, endometriosis or gastrointestinal issues. This can lead to doctors delaying or failing to investigate, especially in younger women who are less likely to develop it.
Louisa’s condition continued to worsen. ‘Within five weeks I was so bloated I looked eight months pregnant. I could barely get out of bed I was in so much pain.’ In November, scans showed a cyst on her right ovary now measured more than 12in. These fluid-filled sacs commonly develop on or inside the ovaries. Most are benign and often go away on their own. They are typically one to two inches in diameter. Rarely, they can balloon to seven inches or more and may require surgery.
‘The doctors told me there was no choice but to have a hysterectomy – removing my ovaries and womb,’ says Louisa. ‘It was heartbreaking as I’d intended to have kids, but at least it wasn’t cancer. To be certain, I asked: ‘Are you sure it’s not cancer?’ The consultant nearly bit my head off, insisting I was too young.’
When her NHS app pinged that evening saying she’d been booked for an urgent face-to-face consultation at 9.30am the next day, Louisa assumed her hysterectomy was being fast-tracked.
‘When I sat down, they apologised and said they’d investigated my results further. I had ovarian cancer.’ Reeling, Louisa was told it was advanced – stage 3C, having spread beyond the ovaries and into the pelvis – and difficult to treat.
By this point she had seen ten different medical professionals to get a diagnosis, had multiple ultrasounds, MRI scans, CT scans, biopsies and blood tests and had asked if it was ovarian cancer seven times, always being told ‘no’. ‘Now, at 34, I was being told I could have as little as five years left,’ she recalls.
Louisa was transferred to St Luke’s Hospital in Guildford, where she had a nine-hour operation – a full hysterectomy with the removal of her appendix, part of her liver and five tumours.
The following February she underwent 18 weeks of chemotherapy and was then put on a PARP inhibitor tablet. ‘I lost my hair, but from that summer to July 2024, I was in remission.’
Last year, Louisa received the grim news her cancer was back. Eighteen more weeks of chemo left her body ‘battered’ and her self-esteem ‘at zero’ – to no avail.
‘It’s in my entire stomach area, my chest, my liver and my lungs,’ Louisa says. The cancer is at stage 4, meaning it is incurable. Just a third of women with ovarian cancer at this stage live for five years.
Having played football competitively, Louisa says the most heartbreaking thing is knowing she will never be on the pitch again.
‘Without St Luke’s Hospital and the support of my partner Sam and my friends, I don’t know how I’d have coped. I’m telling my story in the hope of saving lives. Don’t be fobbed off – younger women do get ovarian cancer, and an early diagnosis could save your life.’