Beth Gillan, 43, is fronting a campaign by cancer support group GO Girls! help women recognise the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer so they can get treated quicker.

Beth was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year.

“I thought it would be my last Christmas. I thought I’d be leaving my three children without their mother and my husband, Steve, without a wife," she said.

For Beth it all started with bloating, abdominal pain and difficulties going to the toilet.

“My friend thought I was simply constipated and I had convinced myself that it was just irritable bowel syndrome. It was not until I ended up in accident and emergency that the truth of my symptoms started to become clear – it was ovarian cancer – at that point my whole life changed," Beth said.

Beth was treated in Poole by a specialist surgeon and after 5 hours of gruelling surgery and a total hysterectomy, removal of her ovaries, appendix and omentum, the surgeon was able to remove as much of the cancer as he could.

Beth is starting to make a good recovery and now wants other women to wake up and be body aware.

She said there was a lot of focus on breast and testicular cancer but women 'should take care of their ovaries too.'

“I’ve have a very rare form of ovarian cancer which has a better outlook than other types. I consider myself lucky and my family and I want to do everything we can to support the GO Girls! to raise awareness of the disease. I know I wouldn’t have got through the last few months without them and it’s just my way of saying thank you to ensure other women in the future don’t go through what I went through.

As part of the campaign and for this year’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, GO Girls! have launched an animated video called 'What Ovary Woman should Know'.

The video lays out a simple code to help women remember the signs of ovarian cancer.

"I would say to 'ovary woman' trust your instincts. If it doesn’t feel right, get it checked out. Watch “What Ovary Woman should Know” and share this with all your girlfriends. We owe it to ourselves as women - there really is no time like now – I don’t want other women to go through what I have been through. Ovarian cancer should be silent no more."

GO Girls! chair, Hilary Maxwell, said ovarian cancer still had a very low profile, often with late diagnosis and often poor survival.

"Knowing the symptoms and responding to them is so important for women – we know for all cancers earlier diagnosis is likely to improve survival chances," she said.

Watch the video.