The death of Jade Goody has raised awareness of cervical cancer to previously unimaginable levels.

The reality TV star’s brave battle against the disease has sparked thousands of women into action.

Girls who had put off having smear tests in the past, thinking their youth made them immune to the disease, have been forced into a rethink following the death of the former Big Brother housemate.

And going to the doctor for this simple procedure could ultimately save your life.

Paula Quinn (29), marketing and recruitment officer for Springboard Opportunities in Belfast, is one woman whose life was saved by a smear. She says:

When you get a positive result from a smear test you can easily start to panic.

It made it even harder for me because while I was being diagnosed, Jade Goody was dying of cervical cancer.

I’ve always gone for regular smear tests even before what happened to Jade.

My mum works as a receptionist in the health service and has seen what happens to people when they leave it too late, so she’s always drummed it into me and my sister.

I went for a routine smear test in October 2008 and the results came back abnormal.

I didn’t think anything bad initially. This happens sometimes so I didn’t panic.

They immediately brought me back in for a repeat smear and it was when that came back positive too, showing abnormal cells, that I started to worry.

I got my letter just before Christmas. The letter they send out doesn’t give you very much information so I phoned my GP to have a chat about it.

She couldn’t tell me

very much more because they don’t really know at that stage.

I also went on the internet to find out as much as I could about the condition, which actually helped put my mind at rest.

You can’t help but panic and think the worst but at the same time you just have to carry on as normal as it could turn out to be nothing. I’m quite a positive person anyway, which helps.

I was surprised that this had happened to me or to Jade for that matter. I’d always thought of cervical cancer as something that happen to much older women, not those in their twenties.

I was referred to the gynaecological unit at the Royal Vic

toria Hospital as an out-patient for a day. My appointment was in February.

They recommend that you bring someone with you for support on the day, so I took my mum, Maureen, not just because she knows about this but because she’s pretty unflappable. She told me later that she was really nervous that day too.

I was given a colposcopy, where the cervix is examined carefully for pre-cancerous cells.

They removed the cells in order to do a biopsy on them. It’s not a great procedure, very uncomfortable although I wouldn’t exactly describe it as painful.

The whole thing doesn’t take much longer than an hour.

I was very nervous about having it done and very glad that my mum was with me.

The staff in the unit were fantastic, though, they explained everything that was happening and what I should do. They also relaxed me and calmed me down a lot.

I had to wait for about six weeks, but last week I got the results back to find that I had stage two CIN (cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia).

These are cells that can sometimes becomes cancerous, as happened to Jade.

All of the cells were removed during the colposcopy so I’m now clear of it, but like cervical cancer my condition can develop very quickly.

For the time being I’ll be going for smear tests every six months instead of every three years, obviously I’m at much higher risk that other women.

I don’t know if that will continue for the rest of my life, but I do know that being tested regularly and having the hospital keep an eye on me gives me peace of mind.

It shouldn’t affect my fertility, which was something that was at the back of my mind the whole way through. Now that I’m clear though, that’s hopefully it.

I was very lucky, as CIN can often turn into cancer. Sometimes it doesn’t because cancer is such and unpredictable disease, but in my case at least it’s been caught in time.

And that’s such a relief. I also have to say the treatment I received from start to finish was excellent.

The staff were really nice and things were explained to me the whole way through.

They were also very good about not panicking me or telling me things they didn’t know to be true.

I know that since Jade was diagnosed lots of women have gone to get tested, but I also know that there are still a lot of women out there who don’t go for cervical smears.

What happened to Jade was utterly tragic, but in some cases cervical cancer can be avoided by early detection.”

n Next week’s Sunday Life

will have full coverage and|pictures of Jade’s funeral.