Hi Suze,

I lost my mum to secondary breast cancer, which had spread to her bones, brain, liver and lungs. She had a horrendous experience with treatment for the 12 years previous to this. That was in 1997. I was diagnosed with stage 1, Pure Mucinous Breast Cancer in 2010 and was absolutely terrified that I would  suffer the same fate. I was assured that this is a rare type of cancer, affecting only 1% of people and told that, if I had to have cancer, this was one of the best types to have, as it was unlikely to spread and wasn't a very aggressive form. I had a lumpectomy and took Tamoxifen for a year. 

Six months after surgery, I found a lump in my other breast. This turned out to be pre-cancerous. A year after the initial surgery, I found another lump in my original breast, which my surgeon refused to test, as he said that it was fine. He wanted me to have radiotherapy at that stage, but I argued that there was no point in treating one breast, whilst ignoring the other. An 11 month impasse ensued, when I was accused of refusing treatment. I was then referred to the consultant who was in charge of all the consultants in the area. Ironically he turned out to be the consultant who I was considering seeing privately at this stage. He agreed to examine me and found a second cancer in my original breast. He offered to take over my care under the NHS.

He carried out a double mastectomy and changed my medication from Tamoxifen to Letrozole. Unfortunately, I was not a suitable candidate for reconstruction of any kind, due to previous non-cancer related surgery. I had a number of nasty side-effects to Letrozole, which I took for 6½ years. I had all of the common side-effects, but it particularly affected all of my joints and I had to have both knees replaced. I also had problems with my eyesight. I virtually lost the sight in one eye and was fast losing it in the other. At this stage I had to give up driving. This resulted in 2 cataract operations and 5 further operations, which fortunately restored my eyesight.

I am a carer for my husband, who had to retire with heart failure after he had a quadruple by-pass and then had a stroke at the age of 50 (30 years ago now). He has a lot of hospital appointments for a number of additional medical problems that he has amassed over the years. I also had 2 young teenage children, who relied on me to ferry them to all of their school, sports and social activities, so I relied heavily on the car to get us all around and about.

Having relayed all of this doom and gloom, I am happy to say that cancer care has advanced tremendously since my mum had it. There was just no comparison between the diagnosis, treatment and after care which mum and I experienced. Despite fearing that I would not be here to see my children reach their milestones, I have since seen them leave school, go to university, graduate, find gainful employment, fall in love, marry and provide me with 2 beautiful granddaughters, so I feel very fortunate.

I forgot to ask if your recall was following your first routine mammogram? More people are recalled after this, as opposed to any other. This is because there are no previous images to compare the findings to. Fortunately, not all of the recalls turn out to be untoward.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx