Gill

My name is Gill and I had breast cancer in my early twenties. I found the lump the first time I checked myself after a friend told me that she had starting checking herself regularly. Being a student away from home I immediately phoned my Mum and we decided to wait a week in order to see our family doctor in the Easter holidays. My family doctor reassured me that girls of my age (22 years) got lumpy breasts and it was nothing to worry about, but that she would see me regularly in the holidays and keep an eye on it. I did see her regularly but missed her the following Easter because she was off ill and the other doctor in the practice didn’t think it was necessary to check me because I was being monitored by his partner. Therefore it went unmonitored for several months and when I did see my own doctor that summer (about 15 months after I originally discovered the lump) her whole attitude suddenly changed and I was immediately referred to my local hospital. After several weeks of tests I was diagnosed with breast cancer and was scheduled for a mastectomy two weeks later. At this point a family friend , a dentist who understood the medical system advised us to change doctors and I got referred to the Royal Marsden, who were brilliant.

I had several months of chemotherapy, for which I travelled home from college in Huddersfield every 3 weeks. This made me very sick and I lost all my hair - something that I found particularly embarrassing. I then had radiotherapy which meant I had to stay at home and finish my course in the Summer Holidays. Finally, and unfortunately a few weeks before my 25th birthday, I had to have a mastectomy. I had a full reconstruction done in the one operation; I couldn’t bear the thought of being without anything even for a few months.

I met Bob my husband-to-be on the day I was told by the Marsden I had to have a mastectomy. He already knew my medical history as he is a good friend of my brother-in-law. This helped avoid a difficult conversation - how do you tell a new boyfriend about this one?! He was and still is a pillar of strength.

The chemotherapy did however have a lasting effect on my ovaries and after we were married we soon discovered that I was very unlikely to fall pregnant naturally. With a lot of medical intervention and a donation from a very kind lady we had our first daughter Lauren in December 2000, 11 years after originally being diagnosed. I was determined to be able to breastfeed her because for me this was another victory over the breast cancer. In November 2002 Jonathan and Eleanor were born (we’re being clever now): breastfeeding twins was more of a challenge so they had to share breast and bottle - which also meant that Bob could help with the many feeds as well as the many nappies !!

My motivation for sharing my history is twofold. The first and most important reason is to tell everyone please, please, please do not assume that lumps in young women are benign. Even the painful ones like mine need to be taken seriously and investigated. And secondly, to reassure that life does go on, the memories do fade and it needn’t stop you from doing anything you want to do. For me the door marked ‘patient’ finally closed with the birth of Lauren and sealed with the birth of the twins. I am no longer the one that had cancer at a young age, I am now one of the mums in the playground.