In the July of 2023, one week apart, I lost two beautiful, caring, vibrant and funny sisters to Breast Cancer, both in their early 50’s. Their loss has hit our family like a sledgehammer and that unimaginable loss has been felt the hardest by their husbands and children that they both left behind.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about them and miss them deeply. The pain of their cruel early departure will be forever felt by all who loved them.

We have no family history, they were both fit and active and they looked after themselves and carried no risk factors.

Genetic testing has been carried out and my family and I received the news that there wasn’t a gene responsible for Ellie and & Kate’s deaths. The sad reality is that 1 in 2 of us are now expected to suffer cancer at some point in our lives and the experts believe that our family tragedy was simply ‘bad luck’.

Both Ellie and Kate had different cancers driven by different hormones. Ellie’s battle lasted 7 years and Kate’s 9 months. Kate’s cancer was missed on a Mammogram. Both were diagnosed at stage three.

A niggle that I will never shake is ‘what if they’d have felt those breast tumors earlier?’. What if the cancer had been diagnosed at stage 1?

Ever since their deaths I have signed up to the monthly text reminder that Coppafeel send out reminding me to ‘Coppa feel’. I check all of my bits and bobs 😉. My breasts, under my arms, groin and neck. I am alert to symptoms that my body provides me and I try my best to eat well, prioritise sleep and move more.

I may not be able to fully control whether or not I get cancer but I bloody intend to catch it early and make it as hard as possible for those ‘C’ cells to get me!

It would be fantastic if you could spare a few pounds to support me in this challenge and to support and raise the profile of this fantastic charity. However, what I would most love to achieve is to get as many of you to register for the FREE/NO SPAM Coppa Feel text reminder service.

We can’t change the past but we can learn from it. By signing up to the FREE/NO SPAM 'Coppa Feel' monthly text reminder we can catch these cancers early and improve the outcomes for all. If you do sign up to the text reminder I’d love to know. I'm currently at 81 Sign ups!! I am thrilled!

https://coppafeel.org/get-a-reminder/sms-reminders/

Thank you for taking

the time to read this, and thank you to those who have shown support and offered words of encouragement, it is very much needed and very much appreciated.

This is for you Kate and Ellie

❤️❤️❤️

A beautiful sunny June afternoon with these two crazies and Mum. What you don’t see is the kitchen dancing to vanilla ice and the hysterical laughter that followed this lunch.

They were both gone a month later - it still blows my mind. 🥹❤️

CoppaFeel! are the UK’s only youth focused breast cancer awareness charity, and we’re on a mission to get every 18-24 year old checking their chest.

We educate people on the signs and symptoms of breast cancer and encourage them to check their chests regularly, so that if they notice something unusual they are empowered to contact their GP and advocate for themselves. We do this because when diagnosed early and accurately, breast cancer treatments are more effective and survival rates are higher. Early detection truly can save lives.