A former nurse who was told she had inoperable cancer has been declared free of the disease after receiving a pioneering chemotherapy treatment.
Caroline Ainslie, 60, from Southampton, was diagnosed with stage-four ovarian cancer in March after the disease spread to her liver, lungs and other parts of her body.
However, she responded well to initial treatment and became one of the first ovarian cancer patients at University Hospital Southampton to receive hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC).
Her consultant said she was now tumour free and expected to fully recover and go on to lead a normal life.
Caroline’s diagnosis could not have been worse.
“I had cancer in my ovary, it was also in my liver and in my lung, so I felt completely and utterly shocked and devastated because I had cancer pretty much everywhere,” she said.
“I just thought that was it, I was a going to die, and I didn’t have very much life left.
“I thought I would be dead within a year – it was devastating, absolutely devastating.”