Breast Cancer in women

I guess you’ve logged on to this website problem you have suspected breast cancer or you've just been told you have breast cancer. And it's a terrible, terrible shock. And it's frightening to think what's the treatment to be like? What are my chances of survive going to be? And on this website you will find lots of other women who've been through it and are prepared to talk about their own experience.

I've always believed that we have to be open about these things, and I can remember the days when my mother used to put her hand over her mouth and say, “she’s got the C word”. And now we talk about it, we talk about it openly. And that's so important because it means we can encourage each other to get tested to have our mammograms when we are supposed to have them, and to understand what we'll have to go through if we get it. And also, I think to put pressure on researchers and doctors to improve diagnosis, improve treatment, improve our life expectancy.

So even though I encourage people to go for their mammograms I failed to do so. I received the call, I looked at the piece of paper,  I couldn't go on that day, so I thought I’d better phone up and make an appointment for another time, put it on the pile I laughingly call my filing system and promptly forgot about it.  And then noticed a symptom, a retracted nipple that is a classic symptom. I was  standing in the shower and thought “Ah” and because I've done such a lot of work on the disease as a journalist, I knew exactly what that symptom meant.

As it was I had to have a mastectomy. I then had chemotherapy which I wouldn't really wish on my worst enemy, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Neither was the mastectomy. I had a bit of reconstruction done, just had an implant pushed in there,  and I now, on the whole,  just pretend it never happened. And I’m still here.