While the disease is the most common cancer in women under 35, it is so rare in those under 25 that screening for it is not offered to women until they are 25.
Today Miss Jones’ mother, Peri Jones, 47, said it was ‘just ridiculous’ that smear tests were only offered routinely to those over 25.
She said: ‘At the very least people should be given a choice. The cost of what Sophie has been through on the NHS is far more than a smear test – however many months ago would have been.
‘Sophie knew something was wrong, she knew her body was telling her something but because of her age it wasn’t even considered.’
In all seriousness, I would like to know if she could have gotten a PAP smear if she was willing (and able) to pay for it herself. Since the UK system is primarily government controlled it may be quite difficult. In the US, it would seem you could find a doctor that would do the test. That said, I suspect you would have to pay for it and insurance would challenge the necessity. Hopefully that would become a mute point once the test results were reviewed.
It does raise a question that no doubt has come up before and will continue to come up, do you change the range of age appropriate preventive care for such a rare condition?
