Rebecca's honesty

I smoked since I was 12 years old.

I was never a heavy smoker. I easily gave up when I fell pregnant with my children but when my marriage broke down, I started again. My girls begged me for years to stop smoking and would get upset when those ads came on the TV.

Over the years I have had a pain in my side which I presumed were gallstones. It would come and go and wasn't anything major. One day I finally decided to go to the doctor's to get to the bottom of it. My doctor gave me antacid tablets and as a precaution sent me for an ultrasound. The technician advised me to make an appointment with my GP and off I went. I had checked the pictures in the meantime and thought uh oh, I could have a problem here.

The GP called that very day and had me booked in to see a urologist. I had a growth on my left kidney. My appointment was in six weeks. Finally the appointment came and the urologist just said "You have a tumour on your kidney and I believe it's cancer". The mental anguish I went through in the week from my appointment to my operation still makes me cry when I think about it.

I was a single mother with two little girls. Would I die? What would happen to my children? It was horrendous. I had this thing growing inside me and I just wanted it out. The cancer I had was Renal Cell Carcinoma and it was a 4cm tumour. The surgeon removed my entire kidney. I'm very lucky, I didn't have radiation or chemotherapy. The surgeon just whipped it out and it was gone.

Six years on I am cancer-free. It is still with me every day though. It is a permanent part of my being that will never go away. I'm happy and feel very lucky that I have a doctor who is very thorough. I haven't touched a cigarette since the day I first visited my urologist.