A mum-of-two has recalled how she was told she was dying of cervical cancer after seeing the doctor for stomach pain.
Nicole Smith, 38, was diagnosed in 2017 and was told last year it was incurable.
The mum, from Salford, was told the disease has spread to her lungs and plans to undergo treatment to live "as long as possible".
She told Manchester Evening News : “I was just devastated, because before there was always hope.
"Every other time I went to treatment it was with the intent to cure, but they told me this time it had spread to my lungs and somewhere else but I’ve asked them not to tell me where.”
Nicole has two sons, James, 19, and Jack, eight - and she is also a grandmother.
She says her biggest fear is no longer being able to look after them when she's gone.
Nicole was diagnosed in 2017 after noticing some "irregular bleeding" and feeling stomach pains.
After undergoing tests, she received a devastating diagnosis.
Since she was diagnosed, Nicole has also lost her father in the pandemic, her pet dogs and her best friend Clare to stomach cancer.
Nicole said: "It was really strange. We’d been best friends since we were 12, when I was diagnosed she was my rock and was looking after me.
“In the same year I had received some treatment and got the all-clear, but I couldn’t even celebrate because my best friend had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I couldn’t believe it.
“That hurt me more than my own situation. That was the worst time for me."
Nicole says she has managed to cope with counselling and the help of her family.
She said: "It takes a lot of counselling and it’s a lot of stress, you think that just when you’re getting somewhere then something comes up.
"The last couple of years it just feels like it’s been non-stop, it’s just hard.
“My family have been there for me, I don’t know what I would have done without them all.
"When I’m in my treatment it’s definitely my family that keeps me going.”
Nicole’s family have set up a GoFundMe to raise money to make precious memories with her family.
She hopes to travel to Disneyland Paris years after visiting on a school trip as a young girl.
