Published: 00:59 BST, 24 August 2026 | Updated: 02:42 BST, 24 August 2026
A woman's suspected endometriosis turned out to be a cancer so rare it required nine of her organs to be removed during 'the mother of all surgeries'.
Claire Gerring, 42, was referred to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with the suspected condition, where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere, after an ultrasound in November 2022 and was put on the waiting list in May 2023 for an investigative laparoscopy.
But after intense pain on her right side, a positive faecal immunochemical test – which looks for traces of blood in your stool – led to a colonoscopy.
Doctors discovered her appendix was inverted and a CT scan revealed she had malignant tissue on the organ and needed investigative surgery.
A biopsy in May 2025 confirmed she had stage four Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (PMP) – a rare cancer that typically originates from a tumour in the appendix.
She was referred to Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, one of only two hospitals that specialise in PMP.
The cancer in her appendix had ruptured, meaning there were other nodules in the rest of her body. In July 2025, Claire – mum to sons Oscar, 15, and Spencer, 14 – had a ten-hour operation to remove nine organs: her appendix, gallbladder, spleen, uterus, cervix and both ovaries and fallopian tubes.
She also had removed her greater omentum (a double layer of fatty tissue covering the lower abdominal area), belly button, peritoneum lining and part of her bowel. Her liver was also partially cut away, her diaphragm scraped and her bladder stripped.
Claire Gerring's suspected endometriosis turned out to be a cancer so rare it required nine of her organs to be removed during 'the mother of all surgeries'
In July 2025, Claire – mum to sons Oscar, 15, and Spencer, 14 – had a ten-hour operation to remove nine organs: her appendix, gallbladder, spleen, uterus, cervix and both ovaries and fallopian tubes
After four and a half weeks in hospital, she was discharged and has been left with bowel problems, but now has no evidence of disease. She will be monitored for the next 20 years.
Claire, a hairdresser from Wantage, Oxfordshire, says: 'I felt really quite scared and quite alone after my diagnosis.
'When you've got a rare cancer and it's not something you've heard of before, there's not a lot of people to talk to about it.
'I was told by surgeons before my operation what they will remove. It's a lot to process. It's quite scary, but I'm lucky I had professionals who knew what they were doing. It's called the mother of all surgeries because of the severity of it.'