
At 24, Heather Keating was told she was “too young” to have a pap smear.
She dismissed irregular bleeding between her periods and after sex as a contraceptive glitch, even so she went to see her GP, just in case.
Her doctor told her she would need a pap smear, but to come back at 25, the age that testing becomes free for women living in the UK.

Unfortunately, Heather’s symptoms became worse, the bleeding got heavier and she went back the doctor three months later, having developed anaemia.
She was then referred on to a gynaecologist, who gave her a pap test.
The results came in and she was asked to return to the hospital.