Mark Thomas
Cocktails At Christies
Fundraising for Prevent Breast Cancer
Story
No one thinks at the age of 36 you’re going to be told you have cancer, and neither did I.
So I was totally unprepared when I happily walked in to see my consultant at the hospital on Thursday 27 September to be told those dreadful words: “I’m sorry-it’s breast cancer”.
At that moment I felt like I’d been hit by a bus, and every other word that came out his mouth was silent. I didn’t hear anything else.
And here starts my journey....
A journey of ultrasound scans, biopsies, MRI scans, CT scans, the anticipation of the result from each test. But the worst part was figuring out how we tell the boys.
Following advise from their lovely head teacher, we went down the ‘keep it simple and let them ask the questions’ route. They know what cancer is and that I would lose my hair, but that’s as far as their knowledge goes and we kept it like that. I was soon being shot by a nerf gun and being shown a Lego model they’d made!! Wow, I’d totally overestimated that reaction!
We very quickly decided there is no other option than to keep positive, smash this and come out fighting at the other end. After all, weknow so many people who have had to go through this same journey and have got through it by remaining positive.
So my first ‘cocktail’ of chemo starts today. Exactly 3 weeks after being given my diagnosis.
It’s going to be a tough few months, but I’m determined to keep strong and get through this with Mark, my beautiful boys and all my wonderful friends and family supporting me (who I need to say have been absolutely amazing so far).
The charity I’ll be trying to raise awareness and funds for is called ‘Prevent Breast Cancer’.
Predict. Prevent. Protect. You could call it our mantra. As the only UK charity entirely dedicated to the prediction and prevention of breast cancer, we’re committed to freeing the world from the disease altogether. Unlike many cancer charities, we’re focused on preventing, rather than curing. Promoting early diagnosis, screening and lifestyle changes, we believe we can stop the problem before it starts. And being situated at the only breast cancer prevention centre in the UK, we’re right at the front-line in the fight against the disease.