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Hi, I’m Heather. I am 36, Mum to a 3 year old, an Architect and (so far) a Breast Cancer survivor. This picture was taken in August 2004 as I reached the end of treatment, and as my hair started to grow back after chemotherapy. I took it as a record of what I’d been through but now, to me, it represents the strength I’ve found in myself and the determination I have to survive. When I took it I’d not have thought that it’d ever be made public, but then I wasn’t anticipating that in one year I’d be setting out to ride a motorbike from London to my home in Edinburgh. I’m riding to raise awareness of breast cancer in young women, and particularly to raise awareness of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Here’s a little of my story…. Cancer didn’t even figure on my radar. No one in my family had cancer, I was too young, I’d breast fed my son (to within a year of diagnosis)… this was something that happened to other people. So when (Hogmanay 03/04) I noticed a slight swelling in my left breast – a pertness one might say – I put it down to hormones or pregnancy. But my period arrived so asked my GP about it while I was seeing her about something else. Nothing to worry about, some sort of infection, but since there was no obvious cause I was referred to the Breast Unit to get it checked. Two weeks later I had my diagnosis – Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)! How? I had no lump! The swelling had increased since seeing the GP, and the nipple inverted, but surely it was just a bad case of mastitis – some antibiotics would do the trick? Not so. I looked up IBC and found that it is rare (about 2% of breast cancer cases in the UK) and that it’s associated with comparatively poor survival. Until recently it was almost a death sentence but now the stats give about 40-50% survival after 5 years. I had a fight on my hands. My son was still only 1 year old; it would be too unfair to have to leave him. The biggest impact, as one might expect, has been on my family. For about a year I had to relinquish the roles that I had in life as I took on the new role of full-time patient. My husband became basically a single parent as well as my carer whilst working full time to keep some money coming in. He’s been a star, and the fact he’s kept a glint in his eye for me even when I’m knackered, scarred and crabbid has been the best lifeline imaginable. My mother travelled up from Cornwall frequently to help out at just the point in her life when she might expect to be seeking help. My career went on hold. I was treated at the Western General in Edinburgh (on the dear old NHS) and I have nothing but praise for the staff there. A few tripped up and assumed my mother was the patient (BC is much more common at her age than mine) but I felt a full and active partner in my treatment there and it went well. I had chemotherapy, surgery then radiotherapy with tamoxifen for the next 5 years and I’ve now been given a 60-70% chance of being around in 10 years; after which time IBC generally doesn’t recur. I want to let you know some common IBC symptoms in the hope it may help someone avoid misdiagnosis, which is all too common:
You do not need to have a lump to have breast cancer, get any change checked out and if a course of antibiotics doesn’t clear an apparent infection ask for a referral to a specialist unit. This is a fast acting cancer and so the quicker it is caught the better the chances of treatment being effective. I’m now taking back my old roles again and the ‘biker’ is going to be a fun one to step back into. I had a motorbike in my teens, and then rode one daily from my mid 20’s until I became pregnant when we decided a car had eventually become a necessary evil. I loved turning up on building sites on it and seeing the guys trying to figure me out!
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