A 19-year-old girl has died of cervical cancer, which, if detected early enough, might have been treatable. But Sophie Jones was refused a smear test because she was considered too young to have the disease.
Doctors in her hometown of The Wirral, near Liverpool, put her severe stomach pains down to Crohn's disease, and when Sophie asked for a smear test, they said that she was too young to have contracted the disease as it is so rare in women under 25.
However, by the time the aspiring model was admitted to hospital, it was found that the cancer had spread to other parts of her body, according to the Liverpool Echo. And after being diagnosed with cervical cancer in November last year, she died this weekend.
Her sister Steph has paid tribute to her: 'She was just the life and soul of everything, and just lit the place up. She was always a very calming influence on everyone around her, and she loved being with her friends.' This should never, ever have happened to her.' According to statistics from Cancer Research UK, Sophie was one of the youngest ever victims of the disease, and the lower age limit for cervical smear tests is 25 because of its scarcity in younger women. Those close to Sophie are unhappy with this, though, and a family friend, Pamela Keegan, has launched a petition to appeal for cervical cancer screening to start from a younger age.
The petition is called Sophie's Choice and, at the time of publication, it had received more than 34,000 signatures. If more than 100,000 people sign it, it could lead to a debate in Parliament on the subject of cervical screening.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.