A bride who had just married her soulmate was told she had cervical cancer five days after returning home from her honeymoon.
Kayleigh, 29, and her husband Rory Spillman, 28, married in August last year, at a countryside manor in Hertfordshire, before jetting off to the beautiful Bora Bora to celebrate.
However, just five days after returning to the UK, the pair, who met at university 10 years ago, received the devastating news that school teacher Kayleigh had cervical cancer.
For the past three months the newlywed couple has been forced to be celibate while Kayleigh recovers from the radical trachelectomy to remove her cervix.
‘What should have been the best months of our lives have been some of the worst,’ Kayleigh said.
‘We wanted to enjoy life as a married couple, just normal things, but that’s been put on hold.’
According to Kayleigh, the shock diagnosis came after a visit to her GP for a routine smear test in July last year. She was given the all clear at her first test three years prior, so she wasn’t worried. However, polyps were found during this test – though she was so busy with her wedding that she didn’t stop to think about it.
Kayleigh said: ‘They said it was nothing worry about and I got a letter saying I’d need a colposcopy to take a look at my cervix a few weeks later.
‘The procedure was just four days before the wedding, so I thought of it like a hair appointment I needed to get done, rather than as anything serious.’
At the colposcopy at Hertford County Hospital on August 2, Kayleigh says she was giddy with excitement about her big day on August 6 and wasn’t worried.
And when she and Rory, a solicitor, said ‘I do’ at Shendish Manor, in front of friends and family, the thought of cancer could not have been further from Kayleigh’s mind.
Wearing a cream lace dress with her hair perfectly curled, she had the a wonderful wedding day.
‘The wedding was the most amazing day. We got engaged in 2012, so we had waited such a long time for the day to arrive and it couldn’t have been any more perfect,’ explained Kayleigh.
‘To have all our family and friends together to celebrate with us just meant so much to the both of us.’
And the honeymoon was just as incredible – with Kayleigh describing it as everything they ‘could have dreamed of and more’.
Kayleigh said: ‘Rory had planned the whole trip as a surprise. He told me by giving me a book full of pictures of the destinations we were going to in April. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.
‘We were talking about all the things we wanted to do once we got home now we were married. Travelling, doing up our house, starting a family… life felt so exciting.’
But when the honeymoon came to an end and Kayleigh landed back at Heathrow airport, her phone was full of voicemails from the hospital, asking her to bring her appointment forward.
Five days later she returned to Hertford County Hospital, where she was told she had 1B1 cervical cancer, with an 11mm by 4mm tumour.
She would need a radical trachelectomy to remove her cervix, as well as more surgery to remove her lymph nodes.
‘I was absolutely devastated’, Kayleigh said. ‘I couldn’t believe that just five days after getting back from our honeymoon, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
‘To say it was a shock would be an understatement. I hadn’t had any symptoms and me and Rory had our whole lives ahead of us.’
The operation to remove Kayleigh’s cervix took seven hours.
Thankfully, she doesn’t need chemotherapy or radiotherapy, but the operation has been a strain on Kayleigh and Rory’s relationship – as the newly married couple were told they could not have sex for three months after the surgery.
After three months Kayleigh will visit the hospital again, where she and Rory are hoping they will be given the green light to become intimate once more.
‘We’re newlyweds, but we haven’t been able to have sex. We were told to wait. When we can have sex again, we’ve been told it could be painful,’ she said.
‘Hopefully, it will all be fine, as three months is a long time to wait when you’re just married.’
Rory said: ‘Of course what we’ve been through would put pressure on a relationship. We got to enjoy our honeymoon before anything started happening and now we don’t want to jeopardise any chance of having children and a future together.
‘We have put our newlywed year on hold until a relevant time,’ he says.
It’s been difficult, but in the circumstances sex has not been at the forefront of the couple’s mind.
‘The most important thing was Kayleigh and making sure she was well. There are more important things to deal with first. You have feelings, but they get put aside for a while.
‘And I’ve learnt more about Kayleigh’s cervix than I would in any other scenario.’
Fortunately, Kayleigh, who is currently taking sick leave from work, has been told that she and Rory will still be able to have children – but they will not be able to wait long in case her fertility is eventually affected.
After research found that almost a quarter of a million women aged 25-29 did not attend their smear test in England last year – with two thirds being unaware of the role of smear tests in preventing cervical cancer, according to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, Kayleigh, who is now in remission, wants other women to know just how important the tests are.
She said: ‘I didn’t know much about cervical cancer before I was diagnosed. I knew a smear test was really important and had to be done every three years, but to be honest, I didn’t really know why.
‘But I am so glad I did go and get mine done. It’s been a rollercoaster with lots of positive thinking but also a few lows, but I’m just so glad I booked that test.
‘Ladies, don’t miss your smear tests. They are so easy to put off, but it’s 10 minutes out of your day that could literally save your life.’
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