About Our Founder

Tribe: Women’s Health Advocates began as Ellie’s Tribe in 2019 while I was fighting my second diagnosis of cervical cancer. Somehow #ElliesTribe began among friends and family and inspired me to start fighting back against the system who sells the story that told me as long as I went to my smear test’s I’d be fine. I am Ellie Taylor, and this is my story:

I was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer in the December of 2017, after a clear smear test in 2014. I was initially staged at 1b1 and had a radical hysterectomy to remove the cancer and 28 pelvic lymph nodes. Overall the operation seemed to be a huge success, my lymph nodes tested negative for cancerous cells as did all the tissue they removed – aside from the almost 3cm tumour on my cervix.  

Sadly, it wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped and less than two months later it had returned in force having returned in my groin and also spread to my stomach. I was told the gut wrenching news that my cancer was incurable in June 2018.

After seven gruelling rounds of chemotherapy I received the amazing news that I have somehow managed to get myself to be in remission. To try and secure my remission I then underwent 25 sessions of radiotherapy, with the hope that I will remain in remission for as long as possible.

Ever since my diagnosis I have struggled with a feeling of anger at the system. You see, I attended my smear test I did everything I was supposed to, in order to protect myself from getting cancer. Yet, there I was, with cancer. I’d had two children and I’d only seen a gynaecologist once. The only time I had seen a gynaecologist was the day I was diagnosed with cancer. I felt so let down. Our three year system is based on numbers, a catch em in a net scenario. But it’s not a catch them all, it’s a catch enough situation, leaving women like me to fall through the net. I decided early on in my illness that I would fight the system for something better that this.