Ania Sherlock is a picture of health. She’s all thick dark hair, golden skin and big brown eyes.

There’s nothing about her vibrant appearance that hints at the fact that only four years ago she was in a fierce fight for her life.

The scary thing is, she looked just as healthy back then. Back before she was diagnosed with cancer at age 22.

She had barely any symptoms but inside her, a tumour the size of a tennis ball was wreaking havoc.

‘I remember it was Christmas 2013 and had just started getting pains in my lower back,’ she said. ‘I had started Pilates recently so I figured it might be that.

‘I mentioned it in passing to my mum and she immediately told me to book an appointment with a gynaecologist, right then and there.

‘I remember her saying Jade Goody died of cervical cancer and I got really upset at her. I remember telling her off and saying, “why would you jump to that awful conclusion”. I remember being so mad at her because I was 22. I was too young to have cancer.’

Sadly Ania’s mum’s concern was not an overreaction. Two months before her 23rd birthday she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Doctors found a tumour the size of a tennis ball growing inside her. They told her it had probably been growing over the past 1-2 years.

Ireland’s National Cervical Screening Programme provides free smear tests to women aged 25 to 60. Ania wasn’t due for her first pap smear for another three years. Had she not listened to her mother’s advice, who knows how long it would have been before her tumour was discovered.

They started Ania on an aggressive form of chemotherapy treatment immediately. She went in for chemo every three weeks and it seemed to be working. She lost all her hair, it was gruelling, but they were having success. The tumour appeared to be shrinking. At least that’s what they thought.

Three months into the treatment doctors discovered the bad news. The tumour had stopped responding and was growing again.

‘My whole world fell down around me when I they told me,’ Ania recalls.

‘For the first time it hit me. I thought, oh my God, I’m fighting for my life here.’

Radiation treatment was her only other option. Ania embarked on a radiation treatment plan that was even more intensive than her chemotherapy – five days a week, sometimes twice a day, for four months.

‘Radiation has lasting side effects, that’s why they started me out on chemo,’ Ania explains.

‘One of the biggest side effects is that I won’t ever be able to give birth. This was something I had to overcome during my cancer battle. It was a lot to take in so young.’

While Ania was battling for her life, she was dealt another cruel blow. Her father John died. Tragically, he was diagnosed with cancer within a week of Ania’s own diagnosis and passed away just six weeks later.

‘I lost my dad while I was in the midst of my battle,’ she said.

‘I didn’t even really get to grieve for him properly at the time. I was in a complete daze, my body was consumed with fight or flight.

‘I was willing to do anything to see the other side of this disease so I kept on.’

After four months of radiation, including three rounds of intensive internal radiation, Ania was finally given the all clear.

‘It was such a relief, but those words don’t even cut it really,’ she said.

‘I had to rebuild my life after cancer, I had to rebuild myself as a person. It changed me.’

Ania, now 25, has not only managed to rebuild but thrive post cancer. She works for a software company, has just bought her own place and is getting married this September.

The Dubliner decided to share her story to warn other young women like her.

‘I know getting a check is not comfortable or pleasant but you need to get over that and put your health first,’ she said.

‘No one thinks they’re ever going to be diagnosed with cancer in their 20s. I was one of those people. I was perfectly healthy, or so I thought.

‘Everyone these days is on a health craze. Everyone is trying to drink green smoothies, trying to hit the gym three days a week. Why not make getting your cervical cancer part of this health buzz and book in for an appointment? Even if you are younger than the threshold for free cervical checks, like I was, invest in your health and get the smear. It could save your life.’

Some 300 Irish women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, making it the second-most common female cancer in Europe.

It is European Cervical Cancer Prevention week this week and the Irish Cancer Society is urging women to ensure that they are up to date with their cervical cancer screening. Cervical cancer is the only gynaecological cancer that can be prevented by having regular smear tests.

All women aged 25 to 60 are entitled to free tests through the State’s CervicalCheck screening programme.

If you would like more information about your next appointment, please call CervicalCheck on 1800 45 45 55 or visit www.cervicalcheck.ie. You can also freephone Cancer Nurseline 1800 200 700 or visit www.cancer.ie.