"I Ignored My Bloating as Just Gas, But It Turned Out to Be a Warning Sign of Deadly Cancer"

AGED just 16, Aimee Martin was told she had a deadly cancer that usually strikes those aged 70 and over.

“You think ‘old people’ when you hear ‘cancer’. I was a fit and healthy teenager,” she tells Sun Health. Despite lots of warning signs, Aimee brushed each off, finding seemingly sensible explanations for all her symptoms.

Aimee Martin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer aged 16Credit: Aimee Martin Instagram She initially blamed her symptoms of GCSE exam stress and ‘teenage period trouble’Credit: Aimee Martin

For a few months, Aimee, from Uxbridge, West London, had been complaining of that are typical to the disease. But the seemingly-healthy GCSE student wasn’t worried.

She was later diagnosed with a rare type of , just before her 17th birthday, and had to have her ovary, appendix and part of her spleen removed.

Aimee is now 30, a personal trainer and taking , after treatment put her in early .

She is unsure if children will be part of her future, but says: “I think it’s easier now than if I hadn’t been able to have kids back in the day, as I am realising it is not everyone’s pathway.”

Almost 15 years ago, Aimee started experiencing vague symptoms like tiredness, pain and the feeling of trapped wind.

She thought it was regular for a teenager, from doing her GCSEs, or at most, she had a cyst.

Only now, looking back, she recognises all the warning signs were there.

Aimee says she was “incredibly pale”, and teachers had asked her if she was well.

Initially unconcerned, things changed when her pain became excruciating.

“I woke up and I could barely roll over in bed,” she says. “I was due on my period and thought it was just that.

“I couldn’t roll over without it really, really hurting. I felt uncomfortable.

“I went out with friends and I felt like I had trapped wind. I remember my friend was taking the mick, saying, ‘You just need a big fart’.

“But I thought this was a weird, weird pain. Something just didn’t feel right.

“I was very bloated in my lower half. I was eating and feeling full after a few minutes.”

Aimee went home and brushed it off as bad , which she had always experienced.

But four days later, it was her worried dad who suggested she see her .

Aimee says: “My dad had a gut feeling something just wasn’t right.

“The GP felt my stomach and told me to go to hospital.

“I was lucky, as I know people are sometimes brushed aside.”

I felt anxious, scared and fearful for the future

Aimee Martin

Once there, Aimee was admitted for a week. An MRI revealed a mass of some kind.

Doctors had mentioned and , but it was when she had a laparoscopy that the true cause of her problems was found.

The keyhole surgery involves a doctor looking inside the abdominal area using a small camera.

Aimee, who was asleep for the procedure, says: “The next thing I knew, I woke up on a lot of morphine.”

Afterwards, she was told that doctors found a tumour “the size of grapefruit” that was “basically spilling out” of her.

They decided to remove her right ovary, appendix and part of her spleen.

The tumour was sent off for tests while Aimee recovered from the .

She was then diagnosed with a rare called rhabdomyosarcoma and sertoli–leydig ovarian.

Aimee lost her hair and started to wear a wigCredit: Aimee Martin Instagram She also put on weight due to taking steroidsCredit: Aimee Martin Aimee, now 30, was diagnosed with a rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma and sertoli–leydig ovarianCredit: Aimee Martin Instagram She runs a successful personal training studioCredit: Aimee Martin Instagram

Aimee says: “A consultant told me about my diagnosis with my mum, dad and sister present.

“We knew the possible outcomes so it wasn’t a complete, out-of-the-blue shock, but I felt anxious, scared and fearful for the future.

“My parents were strong for me, but they must have been inwardly suffering silently.

“I hadn’t heard of it and I didn’t look it up or look at statistics – I didn’t really have time as we moved so quickly to the next step of chemotherapy.”

Aimee doesn’t remember getting a ‘stage’ for her cancer, which may have been due to her age.

“But they made me aware it was a high-risk tumour,” she says.

Doctors said they wanted to mop up any remaining cells with .

Aimee, who had just started sixth form, had to endure intravenous chemotherapy for 72 hours every three weeks at The Teenage Cancer Trust in Sutton, .

She had nine cycles, lasting nine gruelling months, and was often sick.

“The first time I had chemotherapy, I ate a cheese sandwich and shortly afterwards I saw it again,” Aimee says.

“I thought, ‘OK, no cheese sandwiches’.”

But she was given anti-sickness and got through it.

Only going into sixth form a few days of the month, Aimee says she suffered from FOMO (fear of missing out) and was envious of friends going off to parties.

She lost her hair, and wearing a wig and putting on weight due to taking steroids meant she often shied away from going out.

“I just wanted my hair back,” she says. “And I wanted to go into school without people staring too much.

“I just didn’t want to be left behind.”

‘Two years behind everyone’

SHE then had a month of intense radiotherapy at The Royal Marsden, Sutton.

For another year, Aimee had chemotherapy tablets and visited hospital every third Friday of the month, having the drugs intravenously.

She had a portacath fitted at the top of her ribcage – a small chamber that fits under your skin and acts as an access point for the chemotherapy – instead of needing a Hickman line (a long, flexible plastic tube put under the skin of the chest wall).

Incredibly, Aimee managed to keep up with her studies to some extent, but found the distance – physically and emotionally – between her and her peers difficult.

After a two-year journey juggling treatment and being a young adult she was finally given the all-clear in 2014.

But she says she feels she missed out on a lot of the teenage experience and couldn’t enjoy herself the way her friends were.

“I felt like I was mentally two years behind everyone,” Aimee recalls.

Aimee was finally given the all-clear in 2014 after a two-year journey juggling treatmentCredit: Aimee Martin Her passion in life is now to help others stay physically and mentally fitCredit: Aimee Martin Instagram She continues to have regular checksCredit: Aimee Martin Instagram

Post cancer, Aimee went to Buckinghamshire New University in High Wycombe to study dance and fitness.

After such a long time being in ill , she wanted to be independent and embrace university life, but found she was often homesick – despite going to a university just 20 minutes away.

She says: “My friends and family at home were my comfort. I don’t think uni life was for me.

“I wasn’t ready for wild uni life or relationships.”

Aimee has regular checks, and in a huge blow, doctors found another mass attached to her left ovary when she was 22 – a terrifying experience.

Thankfully, it ended up being a cyst, but she had to have her other ovary removed to ensure she had no more scares.

Aimee says: “I already suffered with OCD and was having therapy before my diagnosis.

“This just made it worse, as you have a sense that you want to be in control and obsessive thoughts that something else bad could just happen.

“I felt very out of control during it all.”

Because Aimee has now had both her ovaries removed, she is on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a treatment given mostly to women in menopause.

“I was put on HRT to replace the female hormones I was lacking,” says Aimee.

She was told early on in her treatment that was not possible, so if she chooses to try for children in the future, she will need an egg donor.

Now 30, Aimee runs a successful personal training studio, and her passion in life is to help others stay physically and mentally fit.

She tries to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer, which she has done by sharing a podcast with The Robin Cancer Trust.

Aimee says for anyone worried they may have cancerous symptoms: “Go straight to the doctors and be persistent with it.”

And post-cancer she says she has realised: “The little things don’t matter.”

She adds: “I am more resilient and more outgoing than I used to be as I realise life is too short.

“In some ways having this happen shaped me for what I wanted to do with my career. It made me that bit stronger.

“I always think – look how far you have come.”