For several years my morning routine began by logging into the Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust Forum and making sure that nobody who had posted a new question in the “Newly Diagnosed” section of the forum in the previous 24-hour period went unanswered. After a while other women whom I had supported through their treatment and who had had successful outcomes joined in my personal mission and there was a small cohort of us answering questions and reassuring frightened women.
Gradually my involvement tapered off as my own experience became less relevant and more of the women I had become close to had lost their fights, but even so, sometimes a new member of the forum would discover a seam of my output and would send me a personal message, which I would always answer.
The most recent of these landed in my inbox on Sunday. A very frightened woman was reaching out to me because the Forum had closed suddenly and without warning. I wanted to help her but the respond function had been severed between the moment she pressed send and the moment I tried to reply.
Not all cervical cancer is caused by HPV and a vaccine against that virus will not eradicate that cancer. I so hope that frightened women find their way to The Teal Ladies