Jose McVicar Middlesex, England United Kingdom Amazon Heart Thunder United Kingdom 2007 Support Van Driver   Click Here to Donate Now!

Hello my name is Jose, I am 69 yrs and a flying instructor and examiner.

In Sept 2003 I was teaching a nurse to fly. During one of our conversations she asked me if I had received my flu jab and did I inspect my breasts?

I confirmed that I had been given the flu injection but, I was not too good at breast inspections as I always found them a bit lumpy, she very firmly thumped on the desk that `I must` inspect them.

The next day in the shower I found it, about the size of a pea.

I didn`t tell my darling husband Ken as he had not been well and I hoped it might be nothing.

Along to my GP, she could not find it and referred me to the hospital. About 2 weeks later I had a consultation, he couldn`t find it, now I am beginning to think I imagined it, this was followed by a mammogram and an ultrasound scan, all within about 4 hours.

A phone call that night said they couldn`t see anything wrong but would get my old mammograms from another hospital., a letter two days later again said nothing was wrong, now I feel a fraud, but 4 days later I got a phone call asking me to go for a biopsy. I Still had not told my husband and went along. A week later the bad news was that I had a Grade 3 tumour.

It was not easy to tell Ken and together we went for chats with the breast nurse. In December I had two operations and was very lucky that the cancer had not invaded the lymph glands.

My pilots licence was immediately suspended so I drew up a list of jobs to do to keep me occupied.

The surgeon told me that I did not have to have chemo but I should think about it.

While the wound was healing he asked me if I had made a decision, I told him the jury was still out.!!

I knew that if I turned down the chance I would always regret it and eventually told him that the jury has come to a decision and I would go ahead with the chemo.

The most difficult thing was agreeing to let someone pump poison into my system and I watched the drugs go in with trepidation.

I was extremely fortunate, the only side effect I had was the hair loss., and I had so much energy I was like a hyper active child.

I had a super wig and went flying with friends who had licences and we made some additions to the aircraft check list which included ` Under carriage up, wig off, then on the approach to the runway, `Undercarriage Down, wig on`. Everyone was most supportive

Radio therapy followed for 8 weeks and 10 months later I applied for my licence to be re-instated.

I really would like to sincerely thank my dear friend Jenny who nagged me into checking my breasts, she is my saviour, so are all the staff at the North Middlesex Hospital, Chase Farm and Kings Oak and all my dear friends who supported me through the ordeal

I am sure that there is not one family out there who have not been touched by a cancer victim and I would urge you all to dig deep to support this worthy cause.

My sincere thanks to you all for any donation you feel able to make.

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