'I won't let ovarian cancer beat me!'

Karen Burack was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer (the most critical stage) in March 2009. At one point she was told there was only a 5% chance she would recover. Now in remission, Karen shares her story with us and tells us what helped her through.

Karen first started to notice symptoms in August 2008 - but never even considered she could have cancer: 'I noticed that while packing and lifting boxes I kept needing to go to the toilet and I had an intermittent shooting pain down my groin.'

When she spoke to her doctor she was told she had a prolapse and had an operation to fix it.

A month after the surgery, she began to feel bloated and ill. She assumed it was down to the surgery to fix the prolapse: 'I started to think that during the operation somehow my bowel had been blocked. I couldn't go to the toilet or even get out of bed. I was breathless and looked about 8 months pregnant.'

At this point, Karen was given a CT scan which revealed that she had ovarian cancer - it had spread to her bowel, stomach, diaphragm and right lung. She had 6 litres of fluid removed from her abdomen and started a 3-weekly cycle of 4 rounds of chemotherapy. She then had a hysterectomy and had her omentum removed. After this operation she had 2 more rounds of chemotherapy - and was told she was in remission on September 22 2009.

Be aware of the symptoms

Karen thinks it's vital for all women to know the symptoms of ovarian cancer. When she first started experiencing them, she had no idea that they could point to cancer.

'There was a catalogue of events that hid the fact that I was ill. I totally believed the later symptoms were caused by my prolapse. I put the pain in the groin down to lifting boxes. But I think if I'd been aware of the symptoms of ovarian cancer I would've said to the doctor "I've got every single one of those."'

Karen would encourage anyone experiencing the symptoms of ovarian cancer to keep going back to the doctor: 'I'd say keep being a nuisance to the doctor - or if you can afford it, get a private CA 125 blood test. Or just keep driving your doctor mad. That blood test is key.' (The CA 125 blood test is the test carried out for ovarian cancer).