Cydnie Malone, 31, from Banstead, England, knew something was wrong with her body. Her belly kept growing until she looked pregnant, it gurgled at night and kept her from sleeping. She went to the doctor between 20 and 30 times since July 2023.
Every time, they told her the same thing. Irritable bowel syndrome, polycystic ovaries, nothing serious. Meanwhile, her CA-125 marker, the one that detects ovarian cancer, kept rising and rising. It went from 97 to 497, far above the healthy limit of 30. No one did anything.
In April 2025, after a trip to New York, her abdomen became so swollen that her partner, Billie Harrison, took her to another hospital. They drained six and a half liters of fluid. The next day, they confirmed stage 4 ovarian cancer, with 15 tumors and involvement of other organs. She underwent a hysterectomy and went through six rounds of chemotherapy. Today she is in remission, but says that if she had trusted her instincts sooner, she would not have lived to tell the tale.
