Let’s start with the classic: What’s your worst, funniest, or most awkward period story?

Most awkward for sure is when my period has coincided with my internal pelvic scans. Anyone who has had those before knows where the wand goes!! Cringe.

What have you demystified about your female body that you wish you knew when you were younger?

What all the bits actually do and why! I feel like I knew very little about ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus etc etc until I found out the scary way.

Have you been diagnosed with a women’s health condition (like endometriosis, PCOS, PMDD, etc.)? If so, how did you know something wasn’t right, and what was your journey like to get answers?

I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 25. I knew something wasn’t right after years of intermittent very bad abdominal pain. Multiple doctors had diagnosed me with the wrong condition - rumbling appendix, gallstones, to name a few. It was a long and stressful journey, where I questioned and doubted myself a lot. I’d finally decided to book myself a private pelvic scan just days before I ended up in ED.

What was your diagnosis experience like?

I went to ED when my pain became unbearable and it was this decision that finally gave me the answers I needed. There was one particularly wonderful doctor who made sure I didn’t get sent home, and I’ll never forget that. She pushed for a scan of my pelvis and that was the first key step in my diagnosis. I couldn’t fault the doctors and specialists I dealt with. I was flown from Dunedin to Christchurch within a few days for urgent surgery to remove tumours from both my ovaries, followed by some pretty brutal chemotherapy, and a second surgery to remove one ovary completely.

How has your condition changed your daily life?

My daily life is largely unaffected to be honest. There’s not a day where it doesn’t cross my mind, but it’s not a condition that continues to effect my physically. For that, I am lucky!

Emotionally it’ll always be there, but that is the reality of a lot of diagnoses for so many people.

We did believe it might stop us ever being able to have children, but we beat the odds there too and had our first daughter through IVF and miraculously our second daughter was completely unplanned.

What symptoms made you think something wasn’t right with your body?

Pain, pain and more pain! I had also started experiencing significant bloating and unusually frequent weeing. Of course I realised in hindsight they were pretty typical symptoms of ovarian cancer.

Have you tried anything that has helped you manage your symptoms?

Therapy has been a big help for me and I’d always recommend that to anyone struggling with health issues.

Also picking a great husband!

What’s one thing you wish more people understood about women’s health?

Period pain isn’t always just period pain! I think so many people put everything down to periods and so it must be “normal”. Drives me nuts.

Also (my second thing of ‘one thing’) I wish less people would have this “she’s too young for that” mentality. Anything is possible, so always do the tests!

If you could tell younger you one thing about your body, what would it be?

Your body will be so much stronger than you think!

When your body feels hard to live in, how do you take care of yourself?

Talk to my husband and cuddle my girls.