Myself and my sister Lisa are taking part in the Ashgate hospice sparkle night walk on Saturday 7th july. We will be walking in memory of my amazingly brave sister in law Louise Mallender who sadly passed away on 15th April 2017 at the age of 36 due to secondary breast cancer.

Louise was looked after at Ashgate hospice for the final week of her life and I was in awe of the amazing job that the staff there do and the care they give to their patients, we are very lucky to have a facility like this so local to us but they need support to enable them to continue giving this care.

We’ve left it a little late to try and gain sponsors (louise would be laughing at how unorganised I am!) so we would really appreciate any donations you can give!

For those of you who don’t already know it,here's Louise's story in her own words...

On the 20th December 2013 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. completely hit me out of the blue and was not expecting that result. It was ok, the lump was relatively small and they told me I can still survive this. Then on the 6th January 2014, I had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer and some lymph glands removed to check for spread. My little girl was just approaching 2 1/2 years old and this was the hardest bit of what to tell her. I told her mummy had poorly boobies and that she would have to be gentle with me for a while. I discovered after the operation that 1 in 9 lymph glands were found to have the disease. At this time, because I was so young they referred me to genetics to see if I had a faulty gene that would cause breast cancer.

As soon as I was healed from the operations, I started on the strongest form of chemotherapy for 18 weeks. This was a gruelling ordeal, the risk of infection was high so every day when Eryn got home from school, she had to be stripped off, showered, hands sanitised. Towels and bedding had to be changed regularly. As the cycles of chemo went on the side effects got worse and I was only managing to get out the house 1 weekend in 3. we did it though and we’d always plan to do something nice together as a family, whether it be a car picnic or a walk. The simple things in life were all I wanted. As I approached the end of chemotherapy, it was time to move onto the final part of treatment which was radiotherapy to the breast area. however, it turned out it was going to be too close to my heart and lung so this was proving a problem. At the same time, it turned out I had the BCRA 1 genetic fault so the advice was to go for a double mastectomy and therefore negate the need for radio therapy. So, on the 10th October 2014 I got myself some new boobies. I had reconstruction as part of the same operation so at least when I came around, there was something there. As a positive I thought well at least I don’t need push up bras anymore!

Life started to get back to normal and then 2 days before going to Disneyland America in May 2015 (our treat holiday) I discovered a lump in my neck. I didn’t panic as I’d been clear and feeling well. I called the hospital and they asked me to come in for a biopsy. They told me to assume the cancer had returned. I had the biopsy done and jumped on a plane the very next morning. It was then towards the end of the holiday while queuing to meet Princess Jasmine that I received a text message to confirm that the cancer had returned in my neck. We continued with the holiday and Eryn never knew any different. We landed Friday evening and I was due at the hospital on the Saturday morning.

They couldn’t remove the lump so I started straight away on chemotherapy. After a couple of rounds they did a scan and the lump had been destroyed. fantastic news! This chemo was a real struggle and required a couple of overnight blood transfusions as my red blood cells were struggling to recover. After finishing chemo, I then had 5 weeks of radiotherapy to the neck area and I finished treatment again just in time for Christmas 2015. Life got back to normal and Eryn started to forget I was ever poorly. My hair started to grow back and life was good. I then required an operation in February 2016 to remove my ovaries. (this was to stop any hormones in my body from feeding the cancer).

Then in October 2016 I started experiencing some migraine type headaches. I’m not a ‘headache’ type person but then when the ringing bells, double vision and sickness started, I wondered what was wrong. I never considered the cancer as it had been nearly a year since anything. I was asked to come in for an MRI scan which that night confirmed they had found a 4cm tumour in my head. They said it looked benign but wouldn’t know till it was out. The operation was rushed through in 2 days on the 2nd November as it was life threatening how much pressure and fluid had built up. It’s a good job I didn’t have much time to think about this, because I definitely underestimated brain surgery. It has been up to now by far the most difficult challenge. I told Eryn that mummy hadsomething nasty growing inside her head but the doctors are going to take it out. She came to visit me a few days after surgery once the bandage was off. I had metal clips in my head and the first thing Eryn said was ‘mummy you look beautiful’ I burst out crying. She's
been with me every step of the way and stood with the nurse when they were removing the clips from my head. After a few weeks, the operation side effects settled down and we enjoyed Christmas again. The oncologist conducted a scan and they had managed to remove the lump but unfortunately it was now confirmed as Breast Cancer Metastasis and now incurable. This was a huge blow to me as I truly believed all the way along that I would beat the cancer.

I started back at work on the 9th Jan feeling tired but ready to get some normality back in our lives again. I managed a week at work and then I started with some dull headaches again. I didn’t panic as it had only been 8 weeks since the operation. Then the sickness started and bells ringing in my head. I rang my nurse and they all said they would be very surprised if it had returned so quickly. I had an MRI scan and sure enough the cancer had returned at a rapid rate and grown to nearly the same size as the original tumour in my head. Only this time there is now evidence of the cancer in some of the linings of the brain. The only course of treatment available now was to radiate my whole head and hope it destroys it. The oncologist has said this is a major setback which I know what he is saying. I am currently going through radiotherapy now which means I’ll be back to bald very soon. I then move onto chemotherapy again to see if that can keep the cancer at bay for a bit.

It’s very hard knowing how to prepare a 5-year-old for what is to come but she knows mummy is poorly, she knows mummy fights and will continue to fight and she knows she is the best medicine I have available to me………. Louise xx

Unfortunately Louise lost her 3 year long battle in April 2017 but was inspirational until the very end, spending her last days campaigning and raising awareness of hereditary breast cancer in the hope to “make one person aware, save a family”

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