A 57-year-old woman who “lost count” of doctor’s visits over a year was repeatedly told her symptoms were anxiety before she was given just 12 months to live. Maryann Rowe, from London, began experiencing infrequent vomiting and nausea in August 2024 while on antidepressants for anxiety. From January 2025, she visited her GP regularly, but her nausea, vomiting and “aches and pains” were initially attributed to anxiety.
Tumour discovered after hospital admission
In September 2025, after her daughter Chelsea, 35, called an ambulance because her mother “wouldn’t stop throwing up” for a week, Maryann was admitted to St Helier Hospital in Sutton. A doctor felt a mass during a physical examination, and after a week of tests and scans, a 13cm tumour was found. Maryann was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Maryann had started antidepressants in 2016 after a relationship breakdown and her father’s death. When symptoms began in summer 2024, she thought it was a sickness bug. By Christmas Day, she struggled to eat breakfast with her granddaughter Chloe, 12, and vomited after eating, alongside constipation. Her GP linked the symptoms to her anxiety history, and for months her condition worsened.
Terminal diagnosis and treatment
After being transferred to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, Maryann underwent a full hysterectomy in November 2025, including HIPEC treatment—heated chemotherapy delivered into her abdomen during surgery. The surgery revealed stage three ovarian carcinosarcoma had spread to her bowels. Despite two further rounds of chemotherapy, the cancer continued to spread, and in September 2026 doctors told the family she may have only 12 months to live.
Maryann said: “It wasn’t until I found out I got the 12-month diagnosis that I had a proper cry. Trying to get myself physically well again was a hard, long road… now I’ve got to try and get myself mentally fit. So it has taken a lot, but I’m just going to keep fighting and fighting. Hopefully, we can go beyond 12 months.”
Fundraiser and awareness campaign
Chelsea has set up a GoFundMe to raise money for a family holiday to Spain or a UK cottage rental for Christmas and Maryann’s birthday on Christmas Eve, to “make memories” together. More than £1,300 has been raised so far. Chelsea wrote: “I know I can’t give my mum more time, but I want to help make the time she has as happy, meaningful and full of love as possible.”
The pair want to raise awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms—which include bowel changes, abdominal bloating, fatigue, indigestion, back pain, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting—and urge people to advocate for themselves. Maryann said: “It needs to be made aware how severe this can be. Girls need to get checked out when they get these pains or feel different to how they normally feel.” Maryann is currently undergoing chemotherapy before a scan on October 29 to check if her cancer has spread further.
