A WOMAN who thought she had “eaten too much over lockdown” was shocked to discover she had an extremely rare cancerous ovarian cyst which grew to 18lbs.
Chanelle Mason started noticing changes to her stomach in September last year but thought she was just gaining weight.
The 32-year-old, from Hempstead, Hertfordshire, ignored the growth until she was referred to a physio by her GP in late November.
Doctors were left baffled when Chanelle arrived and was presenting at “full term” but had taken multiple negative pregnancy tests.
After various visits to doctors and physios, the 32-year-old was told she had a cyst larger than a football on her right ovary.
At this point she was experiencing pain from where the huge cyst was pushing against her organs.
Chanelle was even more shocked by the diagnosis after two blood tests and an ovarian cancer check had previously come back all clear.
She had surgery in January where surgeons told her the cyst had grown to 42cm – a further 10cm in the space of 10 days.
It was only after the surgery that Chanelle was diagnosed with an extremely rare Mucinous ovarian cancer which can be missed on tests.
Mucinous cancer is a rare subtype of ovarian cancer where most of the tumor is made up of cells coated in mucus.
It only affects around 2-3% of new ovarian cancers.
Thankfully Chanelle’s cancer did not spread and was removed with the cyst which left her with a scar of approximately 10 inches down her stomach.
Chanelle has now posted a series of videos on TikTok to raise awareness and share her story with others.
She wrote: “‘Are you pregnant?’ Nope, that’s just my 18lbs ovarian cyst in there.”
Her posts have now collected over 400,000 views and tens of thousands of likes.
Hundreds of viewers commented on the clip to send their best wishes on her recovery.
One said: “Well done for sharing and helping others pay attention.”
Another said: “Lost my mummy to this silent disease, please ladies listen to your bodies and never miss check ups. Thank you for sharing.”
And another added: “Thanks so much for your courage and advice.”
Speaking today, Chanelle said: “In September I went to Portugal and just felt really off, I had been trying to go to the gym and shift some lbs but nothing was happening.
“We would go out for dinner and I would feel instantly full up and just want to go back and lie down.
“I was wearing four pairs of hold-in underwear and still looked bigger than I usually do.
“I went to a private clinic to get an ultrasound where the woman told me I had severe ascites so she couldn’t see any of my organs and I had liver lesions, her advice was to call the doctor asap.
“So I am now freaking out as I Googled ascites and liver lesions and it obviously said I had six months to live.
“I called the doctor the next morning and he got me in that day.
“My bloods all came back clear including the CA125 which is an ovarian cancer marker which was great but we now needed to get to the root of the ascites.
“The doctor put me down the cancer pathway, not thinking I would have cancer, but knowing it would be the best way to get it seen quicker as I was in such discomfort.
“Less than two weeks later on my 32nd birthday on December 21 I was having a CT scan and consultation.
“The doctor did ask ‘are you sure you are not pregnant as you are presenting as full term pregnant at this point’.
“I started to worry maybe I was even though I’d done lots of tests and they were all negative.
“I had an internal and external ultrasound again where they confirmed it was a cyst.
“I was told I would have fertility sparing surgery so I would lose one ovary and one fallopian tube, if this wasn’t successful I would have to have a full hysterectomy.
“I was told I had stage 1 Mucinous ovarian cancer which is a very rare form of cancer and is not usually picked up on the ca125 blood test I had.
“As the cyst did not burst I was extremely lucky and it was all removed in one go.”
