Febraury 2022 , i had breast pain but couldnt feel a lump or anything untoward.

March 2022, the pain persisted and I found a lump, out of nowhere it had appeared. I went to the GP who said it didn't feel like anything to be concerned about.

April 12th 2022.. at the hospital, the mammogram never saw anything out of the ordinary but because i had felt a lump they agreed to do an ultrasound, which found multiple cysts. The doctor performing the ultrasound asked to do a biopsy, he was certain they were just cysts , drained them , biopsied them as wanted to err on the side of caution.

April 19th 2022, I was working when I received a phone call asking me to attend that day. My manager let me leave early. I arrived at the hospital, convinced this was routine. A bundle of nerves. I was called in and saw the MacMillan nurse sitting there. I knew straight away. The doctor spent, what felt like a life time waffling to me before I made a statement "I have breast cancer don't i" I repeated this phrase several times before she answered. "Yes, we have found breast cancer cells". On my own, at the age of 41, I had breast cancer. The next few months flew by. A series of appointments and scans while trying to keep things normal for everyone else.

Due to an overly complicated medical history/background it was decided that the best course of treatment would be a mastectomy without reconstruction, followed by 6 months of chemo , phesgo, radiotherapy and hormone treatment.

Things weren't straight forward due to my health and despite having a million minor niggles throughout chemo it was decided that I would discontinue EC chemo after 2 out of 4 sessions and i moved on to Paclitaxel chemo. Due to side effects i stopped at 7 out 12 sessions.

I then moved on to radiotherapy while continuing with my phesgo injections, despite havinxg finished chemo.

Fast forward to Febraury 2024, I finally finished the Phesgo injections.

As of today, this all feel like a million years ago, a memory. This isn't something I talk about often, but it's there in the back of my mind. I still have yearly screenings and once a year appointments .

Breast Cancer now run a whole variety of different programmes to support people going through breast cancer, some of these I have attended without a cost to myself including a 2 day seminar, which I attended at no cost to myself where I met other young people in a similar situation to myself.

I would like to give back to them, to help fund ongoing groups and support others in a similar position.