I'm Jacq and I intended to do some fund-raising this year. Two years ago a good friend of mine, Tess, died of cancer and my daughter and I ran the Race for Life. It was a great experience and I vowed I'd do it again. Last year was a bit of a personal nightmare... so I didn't do the race and I felt bad about it. So, I thought this year would be different and I'd do some stuff for Sport Relief and run the Mile and for Cancer Research and run Race for Life again. This may not sound like a lot, but I'm not much of a runner....  Slight fly in the ointment again which has put me off track a bit...

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January. I had surgery to remove a lump in February but didn't do the trick completely so I'm now having a mastectomy on Thursday 18th March. Things have moved quickly and, obviously, it was a shock. I'm 'getting my head around it' (which seems to be my phrase of the year so far) and I'm doing fine 'in myself' as my northern side would say.  I'm very positive and don't do sentimentality much - everyone keeps telling me that I'm 'tough as old boots' which is I'm assured, a compliment. OK, so I'm going to get a bit detailed and personal now so those of you who are funny-peculiar about these things... look away now.

I've had a 'musinous' cancer which was missed on the mammogram and ultrasound but the biopsy revealed it. An MRI showed it to be 12mm in size. However, when it was removed it was actually 20mm which just shows that we need better ways of imaging in younger women.  It could be lots worse as at this point, it isn't an aggressive type compared to others and it hasn't spread to the lymph nodes. Still, you never know what developments can occur so I'm not counting any chickens until it's all cleared. The pathology of the 'wide local excision' or lump removal, showed two tumors and they were two different kinds of cancer. The second lump was 8mm and there is ductal carcinoma present which means I need to have the mastectomy. This one didn't show up on any imaging at all. I'm summarising of course.....

Am I giving up on the running? Nooo. I'm not - I'm delaying it a bit. Not least for the fact that if the last surgery was anything to go by, just going over a speed bump or pot hole in the car jiggled me way too much until it all settled down a bit more. (OK boys, this is NOT meant to be erotic)  Progress report... I can now run for the bus without holding my left boob against my chest to stop the intense discomfort of feeling like it was about to go horribly wrong. :-)  Not really acceptable behavior in public. So, I guess the next boob job won't welcome any jiggling about for a while.  (By the way, 'boob job' isn't making them bigger, lord knows they don't need to be any bigger...)

Anyway, I do intend to do Race for Life this year - there are some London races in June and July and even if I can't run I will walk it... not in a 'that's so easy I'll walk it' sense, I'll just walk around the course until its done.  The boob job is not the full story... I'm having an immediate reconstruction which they are doing using fat from my tummy so the full procedure is boob job plus tummy tuck. I just knew there was a higher purpose to the goodies I have been partial to and have stored as padding all these years. (Ahhem)  So, apart from looking fabulous (my friends are actually jealous; I've told them not to be) as long as I can stand upright (apparently you can't for a while until it heals enough) I will do the event.

So, my lovely friends and supporters - as I won't be able to do any running for a bit - why don't you sponsor my impending, enforced 'lie down'? I've got to be in hospital for a few days then at home... I will be updating my progress through this in the hope that I can help anyone who reads it in, likely, the smallest of ways. Look at it this way, I just know you would be sending me loads of flowers, chocolates, teddy bears, balloons and cake anyway - but it would be much better for the hospital scales if you just donated the money to my chosen charity instead.

Event 1 - sponsored lying in bed for unspecified period of time

Event 2 - walk, run, crawl around somewhere in London in the summer

It's a game of two halves....

My chosen charity is Breakthrough Breast Cancer - they are focused on prevention and cures. Absolutely everyone I've told about this has a story to share. Breast cancer affects over 45,000 women a year! The research helps with understanding cause and treatment of it and developments make a real difference to the women and their families. In fact, men get breast cancer too, not just women.

Here's the donating bit... give what you can, I would have liked really lovely, expensive chocolates... don't think you can get away with the cheap stuff. :-)

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now. Thank you, you are a lovely human. Jacq x