Hi Everyone!

Thanks for taking time for clicking into my Just giving page. My name is Nuala McCaffrey. As October is breast cancer awareness month I am hoping to raise as much money as I can. This money will go to local charities that helped and supported me during my own breast cancer diagnoses.

My Sister Nora and I are changeling ourselves by climbing 5 peaks of the Mourne Mountains in Co Down 5 Sundays in October. This will be very mentally and physical demanding but i know with the support of all my family and friends we will be able to complete it.

Please read on for My Breast Cancer Journey

On the 3rd March 2020 I went for a routine breast screening appointment at the breast screening bus at Margherfelt hospital. I had a mammogram 3 years previous so I knew there was nothing to worry about. I remembered it being a bit uncomfortable but I also knew it was something that had to be done. I wouldn't have missed my appointment.

A few weeks later I got a call saying my test results showed something unconfirmed and that it needed further investigation. I went back to the hospital for a bioscopy and It was getting this result that my worst fears where confirmed...."I had breast cancer"! I had no symptoms, there was no lump! How did I have breast cancer??!! I never thought for one minute that this could happen to m! I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother. How was I going to tell my family? How were they going to take it?

While this was going on a world wide pandemic had hit. Hospital appointments were being cancelled, hospitals where being closed, we had to stay in doors. I had no idea what I was going to do, was I going to get the treatment that was needed to help me?, and would I have to go through this all on my own? These were questions that were running through my head and no one could answer them!

Thankfully on 23rd April 2020 I had my 1st operation in the Causeway hospital Coleraine to have the lump removed from my right breast. The results came back! they didn't get it all and the cancer was in 3 of my lymph nodes. On 21st may 2020 I had my 2nd operation to remove all my lymph nodes on my right side.

My prognoses was good but I still needed a full course of chemo and radiotherapy. I had 6 chemo sessions in Antrim hospital which ran from 1st July 2020 and finished on 14th October 2020. Chemo was hard! I never expected it to be easy but i never imagined the tole that it would take on me physically and mentally. Two weeks after my 1st chemo session I started to lose my hair! finding hair everywhere was too much to handle for me. I decided to take control of this situation and shave it off! I couldn't control anything else but I could control this. I was emotional but felt very empowered!

My Radiotherapy started mid November. I had 5 sessions over 2 weeks in the city hospital Belfast. That was me...my treatment was over! From I first heard I had cancer I couldn't see far enough that the thought of my treatment would even end! I made it...I couldn't believe it!

Fast forward to March 2021 I had to go for a follow up mammogram! Every thought from the past year was going through my head. Was it going to be good news? Getting the result that I was cancer free is a feeling that I will never be able to describe.

I started walking in October 2020. I loved to get out walking but this for me was my way of starting to get my life back. I could only walk short distances before I would have to sit down. I would try to get out at least a few days a week if only to walk up the street. I was sore, out of breathe but I knew that after all the treatment I had, it was the best thing for me to get out and get my mind cleared. 1 year later and I never thought I would even be fit to walk a few miles never mind climbing these mountains. I was determined not to be the person who had cancer but to be the person that inspires woman going through breast cancer. They too will soon see the light at the end of the tunnel and that it does not define who they are!

Thank you for reading my Story

Love Nuala x