A MOTHER whose life was saved by the early detection of cancer is urging women not to skip their smear tests.

Julie Walker, 40, spoke out for Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, when it was revealed more than a quarter of women in Oxfordshire turned down routine screening in the last year.

Mrs Walker, from Didcot, had just celebrated her tenth wedding anniversary in 2008 when she was given the "terrifying" news that her routine smear showed abnormalities.

She said: "I was always the person who went along to my smear tests and I had done from the age of 18 so I couldn't believe it when my results came back at the age of 31 and they were abnormal.

"Within three days I was having tests at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and a week later I found out I had cancer. I just thought I was going to die. I went numb."

Surgeons performed two 20-minute operations on Mrs Walker and she then faced a six-week long wait for results.

Thankfully the results came back all clear, but she still returns for smear tests every six months.

Mrs Walker, mother to eight-year-old Cameron and four-year-old Jamie, said: "Since 2008 I have had another set of abnormal results and this is even more reason for people to go along to their smear tests.

"If I hadn't gone for regular smear tests I dread to think where I might be or what might have happened to me – I don't even know if I would have made it or whether I would have had to go through traumatic treatment.

"People who aren't responding to the call for tests just need to go and do it because a few minutes' discomfort is a very small price to pay for safety and your life."

In most cases, cervical cancer is slow-growing, taking between 10 and 15 years for abnormal cells to become cancerous and it can be detected by examining cells taken from the cervix in a smear test.

There are nearly 3,000 new cases in the UK each year and about 1,000 deaths, but cervical screening saves 4,500 women's lives each year.

Overall uptake on tests between 2014 and 2015 in Oxfordshire was 73.4 per cent, down from 74.1 per cent from the previous years.

That is just slightly less that the national average of 73.5 per cent.

Jane Ellison, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, said: "Cervical screening currently saves 4,500 lives a year, but it could save more if everyone took the opportunity to be screened.

"Even as we get older, it is important that we spot any abnormalities early so we have a better chance of preventing cervical cancer.

"Cervical Cancer Prevention Week will be vital in raising awareness - screening is our best protection against cervical cancer.

"I encourage all women, whatever their age, to make the important decision to attend cervical screening when invited."