Leanne Westcott Sarina, QLD Australia Amazon Heart Thunder Australia 2006 Rider

Hi, my name is Leanne and I am 38.

I have always been fairly quiet and happier to be inconspicuous than to be putting myself out there to be noticed. That was before Breast Cancer. Now I want to show other women that there is hope and lots of living to be done after a Breast Cancer diagnosis.

I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, on my daughters 6 th birthday, at age 33. After finding a hard lump the size of a pea in my left breast I immediately made an appointment for a check up. Seemingly unconcerned, they sent me for an ultrasound and needle biopsy just to be sure. Everyone was saying “it is probably only a cyst nothing to worry about at your age”. WRONG. The dreaded C word was delivered and although I remember hearing it, I felt as though I was in the middle of a nightmare waiting to wake up. My husband, Laurence, and I found this to be a very traumatic time but were lucky to be surrounded by very supportive family and friends.

The next hurdle was explaining to our 3 children aged 8, 6 and 3 that I had breast cancer and would need to go to hospital. We had a moment of light relief when the response from one of them was to ask, “what will we eat then because Dad can’t cook”? All we could do was laugh, which was great medicine. Having lost a friend to breast cancer only months earlier, my 6 year old then asked “are you going to die Mum”? From that moment on I resolved to fight the fight of a lifetime. The cancer was a Grade III very aggressive type but the lymph nodes taken from under my arm were all clear. After surgery came chemo-therapy and then radiation therapy. One of my worst fears at the time, which now seems ridiculous, was losing my hair. I made an early decision to cut it all off and bought a wig which I rarely wore anyway. Thanks to all the specialists and support people I finally realised that everything that could be done, had been, and I needed to get my life back on track.

My relief at reaching my 3 year milestone was to be short lived. Only weeks before my next check up I found another lump about the same size in my right breast. Filled with dread and hoping for a miracle I rang my surgeon the next morning who organised all the required tests urgently. She was amazing and understood the anxiety we felt at having to wait for tests and results. I wanted to believe this couldn’t be happening again but I think deep down I already knew the results, confirmation was only a formality. Only 3 & ½ years later a second primary, Grade III aggressive breast cancer was the diagnosis and I was off on the road of surgery, chemo and radiation therapy again. Second time around wasn’t quite as terrifying as we knew what to expect. Once again my family and support people stepped in and helped enormously, especially my new friends from our local support group.

Now, 7 months after finishing treatment, I have decided that I need to dive head first into life. I am a founding member of our local Dragons Abreast team and I love spending quality time with my family doing the things we enjoy.

I first saw the applications for Amazon Heart Thunder Australia 2 days before closing and upon mentioning this to my husband, he said I would be mad not to apply and it has been all go since. I sent in my application one day, got my learners license the very next day, booked a riding lesson for the following week and got my license the day after my lesson. I have been riding trail bikes for some time around our property with the family but had never thought I would have a bike license and be doing anything this exciting. We have since purchased road bikes, mine being a VT750 and his a Goldwing. My first real road trip was riding home from Townsville to Mackay admittedly quite nervous to begin with but settling in and really enjoying it by the time we reached home, at this point wanting to keep going. Now we have to make time to ride so I can get plenty of practice and I can’t wait to join everyone in Sydney and begin our adventure of a lifetime.

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