For years, 54-year-old Amanda from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, suffered from stabbing pains in the lower right hand side of her abdomen.

But every time the mum, a Revenues Officer, went to the GPshe was fobbed off and told it was probably women’s issues.

At first, her doctor said the pain was probably due to ovarian cysts and referred her to a gynaecologist, who told her that cysts would be more likely to cause a dull ache or sharp pain rather than a stabbing pain.

The pain persisted over the next year or so, gradually getting more severe, leading to multiple visits to her doctor.

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Every time Amanda went back to see a medical professional because her pain had worsened, she was repeatedly misdiagnosed and left feeling like nobody was listening.

She tells the Mirror: "Every time I went to the GP it felt like no one was listening and I wasn’t being taken seriously. I would come back from an appointment and just cry. I was being made to feel like it was all in my head."

During one particularly concerning visit to the medical professionals, her doctor suspected appendicitis and referred Amanda straight to A&E. However, after spending several hours in hospital undergoing blood and urine tests, medical staff diagnosed her with a water infection and sent her home with antibiotics.

The experience left Amanda doubting her sanity and eventually she reached breaking point. It wasn't until a close friend urged her to not give up that she got the proper medical care she needed. "My friend made me go back to the doctors because when she rang me I was crying with pain in my lower abdomen,” she explains “I had given up trying to get answers at that point and thought it was just me being overly dramatic.”

Her friend’s intervention proved to be life changing - two years after her first symptoms appeared doctors found she had a growth on her right kidney and operated to remove the tumour a few months later. The tumour was cancerous and doctors told her she had ccRCC - a rare form of aggressive kidney cancer that can spread to other parts of the body and kill you - if not treated correctly.

“I didn’t really think about cancer at the time,” Amanda says about her two year ordeal. “I thought it might be my gallbladder or kidney stones because my parents both experienced gallbladder issues and my friend had kidney stones and told me how painful they can be." Thankfully, the operation went well and she is now on the mend. "The operation went well with no complications,” Amanda adds. “I was only in hospital for one night and sent home the next day – it was a bit of a whirlwind.”

Although Amanda is now recovering well she is just one of many women who experience challenges reaching a diagnosis simply because they are female and her story highlights the issue of gender bias in medical diagnosis. Now she wants others to learn from her experience and stand up for themselves.

"My experience has taught me that people need to listen to their own body," Amanda continues. "Don’t be afraid to ask for a scan and advocate for yourself – you know your body best. Be explicit about how you feel and what you want – even if the doctor thinks you’re being over paranoid."

Amanda has received invaluable support through Kidney Cancer UK’s online support groups. Commenting on Amanda’s story, Hazel Jackson, lead healthcare professional nurse at Kidney Cancer UK said: “Sadly, Amanda’s experience of misdiagnosis and lack of support isn’t uncommon. Despite being the sixth most common cancer in the UK, a lack of awareness around the condition means that many patients have a difficult journey to diagnosis.

“It’s also a sad reality that many kidney cancer patients don’t feel fully supported through their journey – from diagnosis to their follow-up care – with two fifths of kidney cancer patients in our most recent annual survey reporting the way they were told about their diagnosis was ‘not appropriate’. Amanda’s story reiterates the urgent need for more proactive, patient-centred approaches in kidney cancer support.”