'I'm here and I put it down to that five-minute smear test'

When Michelle was 19 and pregnant with her first child, she had a smear test - but it was a bad experience.

It meant she ignored subsequent invitations to repeat the test.

"It put me off. It was sore, it was uncomfortable. There was no dignity. It was not a nice experience," she said. "Psychologically it put me off and I kept putting the letters to one side."

Michelle was convinced to have a smear test when she went to see her GP on a separate matter. The five-minute screening led to a diagnosis of cervical cancer.

She is now free of the disease and has urged other women to take the test, which she says has improved considerably since her bad experience 25 years ago.