My Story

In April 2020 at the age of 35 I was diagnosed with Triple negative breast cancer which is a very aggressive type of breast cancer. We had lost my Dad to dementia just 4 months before which had hit our family pretty hard, so to then have to deal with this was abit of a double whammy for us all. My little boy had just turned one and the thought of him growing up without me just broke my heart.

After we had all processed the news, I was given my treatment plan which seemed pretty straight forward but very daunting - surgery (lumpectomy) followed by 16 rounds of Chemotherapy then 15 rounds of Radiotherapy.

I underwent my lumpectomy in May 2020, the surgery went well but unfortunately my results didn’t paint the same picture, the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes with one out of 5 testing positive and they hadn’t managed to get clear margins around the tumour, so I was quickly back in for more surgery where I underwent a single side mastectomy and a full lymph node clearance. Thankfully my results from this were a lot more promising, none of the other 18 lymph nodes that were removed tested positive and they had also managed to get clear margins so the cancer had been removed.

I started Chemo in August 2020, 16 rounds in total over 5 months…this was by far the hardest part both physically and mentally. The first one hit me like a ton of bricks and I was that poorly I struggled to get out of bed for a couple of days but we started ticking them off one by one. After my first 4 treatments I had a progress scan which showed another enlarged lymph node by my collar bone and after biopsy it was also found to be cancerous, this was a massive blow for us all as the 4 rounds of chemo I had struggled through had not had any effect on the cancer so I was started on a different chemo. I had another 6 rounds of chemo before the next progress scan which showed the cancerous lymph node had reduced in size so the chemo was working. I had the final 6 rounds of chemo and another scan which thankfully showed no signs of the disease. I then went on to have 15 sessions of radiotherapy and completed my treatment.

Living life after cancer is by no means easy, from the lasting sides effect of treatment to the physical and mental scars and the ongoing scans but I am thankful for every day I am on this planet. Without the work that Charities like Breast Cancer Now do my story could have been very different