When Fiona Lamplugh sat down in her oncologist’s office last year, she wasn’t prepared for what came next. Lamplugh, said the doctor, tested positive for cervical cancer.

“I knew her mouth was moving, but I wasn’t hearing what she was saying,” Lamplugh recalls of the moment. “I don’t think it really became real until I walked into the cancer clinic. That’s when I realized this was something big, this was scary.”

A year later, the 44-year-old is free of cancer. But, as she sits at the dining room table in her Saanich home, finding the right words to describe what she went through is difficult.

“Once (the treatment) stops it’s not like everything goes back to normal,” she said. Lamplugh spent two months travelling to the cancer clinic five days a week for treatment. She started with radiation, then a combination of radiation and chemotherapy and finally brackey therapy (a high dose of internal radiation.)

“It wasn’t my body anymore,” she said, fighting back tears. “They had kind of invaded it with all this radiation and (treatment). Suddenly they were all in control of me and I had lost my control.”

When treatment finished she found it hard to move on with life.

“I went for so long that when they finally said ‘that’s it, you’re done’ and I didn’t have to go back there, it was like I was lost. Even after being told the cancer was gone, even though I should have felt good about that, I still thought it might come back. You always fear that it could come back.”

Knowing first-hand the emotional and physical challenges of cervical cancer, Lamplugh wants families to understand the importance of early prevention. It’s important girls receive the new HPV vaccine, she said. The vaccine, called Gardasil, is now being given to girls in Grade 6 and 9 throughout the province. Gardasil protects against two strains of Human Papilloma Virus commonly known to cause cervical cancer as well as two strains that frequently cause genital warts.

“My big thing is I waited too long to get it checked out. I started getting some symptoms but I didn’t know what it was, like irregular period and getting more tired than usual,” said Lamplugh. “I get up early in the morning for work so I just thought I was tired and didn’t think anything more of it. But what I went through last year was terrible and I don’t think anybody should have to go through that.”

Lamplugh says she understands why parents may be unsure about the vaccine but feels the benefits outweigh any concerns.

“People put a lot of money into research because everybody wants a cure for cancer and now there’s something that’s going to prevent one type, why are people saying no now? This is to prevent cancer and save lives,” she said. “The short-term effects of the vaccine are way better than the long-term effects of cervical cancer. I’d rather go through passing out a couple of times and maybe getting sick (from the vaccine) for a couple days and be OK, then have to go through a year of what I went through.”

kschoenit@oakbaynews.com