When Tina O’Connor went to the doctor for a routine health check ahead of starting a family, she never dreamed of the devastating diagnosis that would follow.
Tina, from Ireland, arrived in Australia at the age of 27 as a backpacker and has spent the past two decades making a life for herself in Sydney.
At 41, she was ready to have a baby so booked in to see her GP in 2021 to check on her fertility and general health.
‘The GP suggested an optional health screen because of my age – it wouldn’t have been needed if I was 25,’ Tina told FEMAIL.
‘He said there probably wasn’t anything wrong, but he wanted to be sure.’
Tina almost didn’t go through with the procedure as it wasn’t routine.
‘I remember the clinic calling me for payment details and wondering if it was necessary,’ she said.
‘I’m glad I went through with it – because the results revealed I had endometrial cancer.’
Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer of the uterus and is caused by the cells in the endometrium growing in an ‘uncontrolled’ way.
It counts for 90-95 per cent of uterine cancer diagnoses, of which there were 667 deaths in 2022. It’s the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia in women.
Tina O’Connor is originally from Ireland but now based in Sydney
Tina got a phone call from the clinic two days after the test and a shaky voice asked her to come in for the results.
Alarm bells immediately started ringing in Tina’s head, and she feared the worst.
Tina has a family history of cancer and lost her father and a sister to the illness.
‘My sister passed away very suddenly from breast cancer the year before which added to my stress and anxiety. I just thought: this can’t be happening again,’ she said.
‘The energy in the room was so strange when I walked in.
‘My doctor was fidgeting and couldn’t make eye contact with me. That’s when I knew something was wrong.’
Tina wanted to rip the band-aid off and asked the doctor to tell her what had happened.
‘We found some cancer,’ he said.
‘We recommend that we adjust the course straight away… you need to have a full radical hysterectomy.’
The news was devastating. All Tina wanted was a baby she felt this would take that opportunity from her.
‘I had absolutely no symptoms, there was nothing suspicious or abnormal about my health,’ Tina said.
‘No pain or discomfort or anything.’
Tina spent the next few weeks not knowing what stage the cancer was or what her prognosis was going to be.
‘We were going into another lockdown and I didn’t have any family in Sydney,’ she shared. ‘It was just me living alone with my French bulldog.’
Tina’s mum wanted to fly over from Ireland and be with her daughter but COVID restrictions at the time meant she was locked out.
Tina has a family history of cancer and lost her father and sibling to the illness
‘I felt trapped in Australia, my mum was trapped in Ireland, and she’d just lost one of her children the year before – it was very traumatic,’ Tina said.
She met up with friends in her ‘bubble’ every day and went on walks in a bid to get some emotional support.
‘It was difficult because I didn’t know if the cancer was going to be treatable. The doctors just told me I was going to need a hysterectomy – but I didn’t know if I was going to die,’ she continued.
Luckily, the cancer was stage one. Doctors had been able to catch it early thanks to the fertility screen.
‘The doctors told me it was a miracle to discover it at all when I had no symptoms or pain,’ she said.
‘I went through the process of egg retrieval because they were going to take everything out – my uterus, ovaries, cervix, fallopian tubes.
‘It was hard to absorb because my plans of becoming a mother immediately evaporated. They told me I shouldn’t be thinking of having a child – I needed to focus all my energy on trying to survive.’
Tina had keyhole surgery and was prescribed six weeks of bed rest after – but the determined entrepreneur couldn’t commit to that much time off.
‘I’m a self-employed real estate agent, I remember the next day after surgery almost going back to normal,’ she said.
‘I still had to work to keep the business afloat. The phone calls were still coming in.’
Tina had keyhole surgery and was prescribed six weeks of bed rest after
Tina relied on her loved ones for emotional support during her health journey
The real estate agent sold $90million worth of property in 2021
Tina didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation because the cancer thankfully hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes.
‘They were more frequent in the past but I still get checks every six months now,’ Tina said.
However, having cancer brought about a surprising perk: Tina had the best year of her life career-wise and sold $90million worth of property in 2021.
‘I was in fight or flight mode the whole time,’ she said.
‘My idea of accomplishment has changed over the years and although I’ve never been driven by money, I do love to achieve success and be proud of the career that I’ve built.
‘It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was a backpacker answering an advert for a ‘part-time’ real estate agent in the Inner West – which I soon realised there was no such thing.
‘This job is not a 9-to-5 or part-time job, it’s an all-consuming lifestyle commitment which I thrive on.’
Tina used her work as an outlet to get through the tumultuous time in her personal life.
‘I somehow always have so much energy for my job, and it’s hard to find.
‘I’m grateful I had it as a distraction when I had cancer because if I didn’t like my job, it would have been unbearable.’
Tina doesn’t spend too much time reflecting on that part of her life, but she believes everything happens for a reason.
‘I went to the doctor because I wanted to have children, but that option was taken away from me,’ she said.
The health scare has also made her reconsider several aspects of how she spends her days.
‘I strive to stay as fit and healthy as possible,’ she said.
‘Every week I have a schedule of incline walking, weight training, yoga, sauna, and cold plunges.
‘I gave up alcohol in July 2020, which has been one of the best decisions of my life.’
‘I think your life is made up of little habits, so I try and better myself in little ways every day,’ she said.
‘Having cancer during the COVID lockdowns was a dark time, but I got through it, and now I feel like I can get through anything.’
