Mom Of Four Dies Of Cancer After Being Told She’s ‘Too Young To Have A Smear Test

Cancer has the potential to wreck the lives of many people. It is estimated that 1,685,210 new cancer cases would be diagnosed in America by the end of 2016 and 595,690 deaths, according to American Cancer Society. What’s more, it is predicted that 22 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed over the next twenty years. Thankfully, the treatments available are rapidly improving.

When looking at individual cases, it can be even more heartbreaking to see the consequences that cancer causes. For 25-year-old Sadie Blackston from Gravesend, who was a mother of four, her experience with cervical cancer left her having months to live. Doctors told her that she was too young to have a smear test, which resulted in her life coming to an untimely end.

In the UK, cervical smear tests are offered to women over the age of 25. Sadie died within a year of her diagnosis but was on the threshold for being tested according to guidelines set by the NHS. Now, her family are campaigning for the age at which a woman can have a smear test to be lowered to 16.