LAURA McAdam wishes the HPV vaccine had been around when she was at school.

She was just 31 when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and within weeks she underwent a full hysterectomy.

"At the time, I'd not long split up from my husband and we'd tried for years to have a baby but it hadn't happened, so I think I'd come to the mindset of it [having children] just wasn't going to happen," said Ms McAdam. "But when they tell you that your choice has basically been taken away it's a lot more difficult to take in.

"Sometimes I think that was harder to accept that the whole cancer thing."

Ms McAdam, from Beith in Ayrshire, had been attending for routine smear tests since she was 20.

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The first indication that anything was amiss was when it picked up abnormal cells when she was 29.

She said: "They said there were some changes showing, but they weren't overly worried about it at the time. They had me come back every six months.

"Then it got to the stage where they basically said 'look, it's not going away - it's getting worse'."

Ms McAdam, who works as a document controller for a major logistics firm, underwent LLETZ (large loop excision of the transformation zone) - a procedure uses laser to burn away abnormal tissue. A biopsy was also taken for testing.

She said: "Id' had so many letters over the years calling me back for check that I think I'd told myself 'it'll be fine'. Then, after I'd been for the biopsy, they phoned me at work. This was on the Tuesday, and they asked if I could come done to the hospital on the Thursday and to bring someonbody with me.

"I knew straightaway what they were going to say and I burst out crying at work. I was so hysterical they had to send me home."

Although her Grade 2 tumour was successfully removed during surgery and doctors were confident that there was no sign the disease had spread, a tear to her bladder sustained during the operation meant she was unable to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy as planned.

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The treatments - a precautionary measure to reduce her chances of relapse - would have prevented the hole in her bladder from healing.

Instead, she has been offered six-monthly scans to monitor her recovery.

"I'm delighted about that, to be honest," said Ms McAdam. "It's a weight off my mind."

Now 33, Ms McAdam says she would all schoolgirls to take advantage of the HPV vaccine.

She said: "If this injection they are giving at schools now is wiping this out then that is amazing news and I'm definitely all for it.

"I wouldn't wish what has happened to me on my worst enemy. Although I've had treatment I don't think my nightmare will ever really be over as I'll constantly be worrying if they got all the cancer or if it's come back.

"I would advise all girls to get vaccinated because there is proof that it works. I would also advise women to go for smear tests. It was a smear test that saved my life."