by Anna Edwards

anna.edwards@essnmedia.co.uk

Since reality TV star Jade Goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer last August the number of women getting themselves tested for the disease has risen 20 per cent.

One young Croydon woman wants to see these figures rise even more.

Tessa Shewan, from Park Lane, was diagnosed with the illness at the age of just 24. Now, after chemotherapy and surgery, she is in remission.

Her symptoms, though, were not picked up on for more than a year and, as a result, she has been left infertile.

She is now campaigning for the NHS to lower the age when a woman can have her first smear test from 25 to 18.

Now 25, the former wine-bar manager said: "It seems ridiculous that there is free testing for chlamydia, but when women under 25 ask to be tested for something that can kill them, they have to have symptoms before they get checked."

In Tessa's case she did have symptoms when at university but still wasn't sent for a test.

She explained: "My doctor always dismissed them as hormonal or something to do with the contraceptive pill I was on. But when I was checked by my GP at home and had tests they discovered I had cervical cancer.

"I've had to have a hysterectomy and five months of chemotherapy.

"It was very painful and exhausting, but I'm not the sort of person to cry all day about something."

Tessa's dream of having children has been destroyed, but she still intends to become a mother.

She said: "I've always wanted to be a mum – career and all that stuff doesn't matter to me, it's all about having a family.

"I'm very open-minded, so I would consider other ways of becoming a mum, adoption or surrogacy are options.

"Sometimes it's hard because my friends are popping kids out all over the place, but I think it's best not to feel sorry for yourself."

When battling through chemotherapy, she faced the reality of losing her long hair.

She recalled: "My hair became so thin so quickly, so at first I cut it really short into a bob, and then I hacked it off.

"My family and I all had a go chopping it off, and at first I couldn't look at myself because I thought it looked weird and I wore a headscarf.

"Slowly I got used to it, and now I'm starting to recover."