ONE IN A MILLION

Lisa Tillyard, 47, had just got engaged and was planning her dream day, when she was given a terrifying diagnosis

- SARAH WHITELEY

Strolling along the silky-soft white sand and hearing the sea break gently on the shore, I squeezed my partner Daniel's hand and sighed happily. Then, before I knew what was happening, Daniel dropped down to one knee and pulled out a ring.

'Will you marry me?' he asked, looking up into my eyes. 'Of course,' ' I stammered, gazing down as he slid the sparkling solitaire onto my finger.

We were on holiday in Mexico in March 2020 and, despite being together for nearly five years, we'd never talked seriously about marriage before. We were happy as we were so I'd thought! But now that Daniel had proposed, I was delighted.

Even when lockdown was announced just days later, and we had to get the last flight out of Mexico back to our home in Leeds, I couldn't stop staring at my ring, daydreaming about our big day. The only thing that took the shine off my excitement was the fact that I still wasn't feeling well. I was a slim size 10, had always gone to the gym, and ate healthily, with the exception of the odd bar of chocolate or takeaway.

But just a few months earlier, in November 2019, I'd experienced sharp stabbing pains in my stomach. I'd gone to my GP, convinced it was appendicitis. But because the pain wasn't constant, they assured me it couldn't be. Then, just a month later, the same thing had happened again when I went to the toilet only, this time, I'd passed out.

A scan had shown I had a cyst on my ovary, the weight of which doctors believed may have caused a torsion, where the ovary flips. That could have caused the agonising pain, they explained. But it seems to have rectified itself, I was told. 'We'll keep an eye on it, as sometimes they decrease in size on their own."

WORRYING SYMPTOMS