I beat cancer but postcode lottery almost ended my dreams of being a mother’

For Joanna Young, the news that doctors had found a rare form of ovarian cancer with just a five to 10 per cent chance of survival was devastating enough.

- HOLLY EVANS

Little did the 26-year-old know that the treatment to save her life would also rob her of the chance to conceive a child, a prospect that affects tens of thousands of women of reproductive age who are diagnosed with cancer in the UK. Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery can cause permanent damage to reproductive potential, yet access to fertility preservation on the NHS remains inconsistent.

With funding decisions made at a local level, many women are unable to access treatment due to a postcode lottery system, with only seven per cent of Independent Care Boards implementing the guidance that up to three IVF cycles should be given to women under 40.

In 2013, Joanna was informed that a rugby ball-sized cyst had been found on her ovary, and the cancer spread to her lymph nodes one year later. She said: “My doctors felt that we needed to start the chemotherapy as quickly as possible and freezing my eggs would’ve prolonged that. As well as that, because they knew so little about the type of cancer I had, there was concern about how the cancer would react to the hormone medication needed to freeze my eggs. So it was decided my best option was to begin chemotherapy straight away."