I was just told to STRETCH more after the gym – now I’m facing a terminal disease

A YOUNG woman told by doctors to simply stretch better at the gym is now facing stage 4 cancer.

Sophie Pugh, 27, now knows she had all the signs of cancer, but was dismissed as she sought help.

She had agonising period pain, a sore lower back and upper leg, abdominal pain, bloating and trouble going to the loo.

A three cm growth on her left ovary had been found just eight months before the life-changing diagnosis.

The keen weightlifter is now battling ovarian cancer, which has spread to both her lungs.

Usually this type of diagnosis would be terminal, but Sophie said she is lucky as her cancer is reacting well to chemo.

She : "It also has a much higher cure rate, if I had been diagnosed with normal ovarian cancer I would be a complete mess because it would likely mean I would be terminal."

The young woman had suffered with agonising pain and diarrhoea after being told she had polycystic ovaries, and then a growth.

Then her back began to hurt, but she assumed she had hurt herself in the gym with a heavy weight.

When her left quad began to be painful she went back to the doctor.

She said: "He told me I wasn't stretching after the gym properly, which I knew I was because I stretch for 20 minutes before and after each session, we now know it was a symptom of the cancer."

The young woman decided to try and forget about it, even when the pain increased.

But she noticed she had pain when she tried to go to the loo and was struggling to urinate.

Then one day, when her cat jumped on her stomach and she cried out in agony, her partner insisted she go back to the doctor.

Her GP thought she had appendicitis and rushed her to hospital, but four days later she was discharged with a devastating cancer diagnosis.

Since being diagnosed to when doctors surgically removed the cancer, it out it had gone from ten to 15 centimetres and spread to her lungs.

She is set to begin five round of chemo soon, with fears it could take up to six months of treatment to shrink the cancer.

The gym fanatic is taking every chance she has to still be able to have kids in the future.