She was supposed to be enjoying her birthday hill-walking in the Welsh mountains with her partner.
But former French teacher Christine Mitchell, of Ardross, started feeling stomach pains and tiredness, so visited a doctor on the first day of her holiday.
The 57-year-old was told she may be experiencing symptoms of early stage ovarian cancer and was referred to her GP in Inverness, before being diagnosed after blood and ultrasound tests.
She underwent surgery the following month, in November 2013, and was given chemotherapy the following January.
Telling her story yesterday, Ms Mitchell said she was “very fortunate” to have been diagnosed so quickly and now actively campaigns to raise awareness to help save other women’s lives.
“I was really lucky in that my illness was picked up by a doctor, which is not always the case because a lot of people are misdiagnosed,” she said.
“If I had not found a doctor I don’t know what stage I would have been diagnosed at, and ovarian cancer is prone to come back and the longer you leave it the worse it will get.
“The diagnosis had an effect on my wider family and siblings but they were all very supportive, as were my friends.
“I think awareness raising among women in the general population is crucial, so they know the kind of symptoms to look out for. I think that’s something a woman can do and I think the more GPs who know the symptoms when presented with them, the better.”
Ms Mitchell stressed that ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all the gynaecological cancers, with 15% of women dying within two months of being diagnosed, and only a third of women surviving 10 years after their diagnosis.
For about a year, Ms Mitchell has been involved as a patient advocate on the panel for the charity Target Ovarian Cancer, and travelled to Westminster in November to help launch a study, titled Pathfinder, into ovarian cancer in the UK.
The report revealed that 41% of women visited their GP three times or more before being referred for ovarian cancer diagnosis.
In October 2015, Ms Mitchell also raised about £5,000 through a sponsored walk with family and friends.
She has lived in the Highlands for 30 years and previously taught English and drama at Golspie High School and most recently taught French at Inverness Royal Academy.
She does not plan to get back into teaching but said she had recently felt rejuvenated, bagging her first munro for a while in the summer, and now plans to get back into hillwalking.
“In the last year I have felt like my old self again,” she said.
