Woman's cervical cancer warning

Ms Moore was eventually booked in by her mother

A Bristol mother-to-be hopes other women will learn lessons after she ignored doctors' invitations to have a smear test, and developed cancer.

Abbie Moore, 28, was successfully treated for cervical cancer last year, but wants her story to inspire other young women to go for their tests.

The warning comes as fewer and fewer women in the West are going for their smears, it has emerged.

Ms Moore said: "I didn't fancy having the test and hid the invitations."

She was eventually booked in by her mother, and learnt she had cancer last March.

'Saved me'

Offered a hysterectomy, Ms Moore opted for have fertility-saving key-hole surgery.

"In the long term, it saved me and I can have children in the future," Ms Moore added.

She is now expecting her first baby.

In the Greater Bristol area, some 70,000 women aged between 25 and 44 should be regularly screened for cervical cancer, according to the Bristol Primary Care Trust.

"About 11,000 of these women have never attended their screening appointment, and on top of that, for about 8,000 of them it has been over five years since their last test," said a spokeswoman.

Dr Ardiana Gjini, local public health specialist registrar said: "Younger women are at higher risk of having cervical cancer.

"That's why they should be having more frequent tests than women of older ages."