Primrose Patient Sally Shares Her Story

Hello, my name’s Sally & this is my story.

I was diagnosed back in January 2015 after being invited to attend an early mammogram as part of a breast screening trial. It’s safe to say that this mammogram saved my life, I had 8 tumours in my left breast & it was full of pre-cancerous cells as well. I could not feel it because the tumours were following my milk ducts - I look back now and feel that someone was definitely looking out for me.

My treatment consisted of two parts- -I had an immediate mastectomy 2 weeks after being diagnosed, it was all a bit of a rollercoaster really, no time to think on it followed by breast reconstructive surgery.

My children were 9 and 11 at the time so I really tried to shield them from how I was feeling but I was honest with them about my diagnosis and what treatment I was having. I was slightly dishonest in saying that I would be fine, and it had been caught early, that by having a mastectomy that would be it all gone. Of course, I didn’t actually know that but I felt it best that they felt secure and that Mummy was just going to be poorly for a while.

When I had healed from my mastectomy op I had 3 weeks of daily Radiotherapy sessions followed by hormonal medication. I was diagnosed as 8/8 oestrogen receptive cancer which basically means my cancer feeds on oestrogen. I was then prescribed tamoxifen which I need to take for at least 10 years as it is meant to help prevent the cancer from feeding on oestrogen by blocking it, hence helping make it more unlikely that it will come back again.

My friends and family were amazingly supportive. My elderly mum came over daily to cook us meals, a very dear friend of mine came and cleaned my kitchen cupboards. My husband was a huge support but also very busy, we had only 2 weeks before my diagnosis set up a new business together and of course I suddenly went sick and couldn’t help him. He handled it all on his own, thankfully I’m now back running this family business with him. My children though have to be the main reason I got through it. My fear of them losing their mummy made me so determined I would get through it all. Their cuddles and love were everything.

12 months after my treatment finished, I had what’s called diep breast reconstructive surgery. This was amazing, I still cannot get over how good the surgeons were. The really lovely Sue from the Primrose Breast care centre was my reconstruction nurse, she was a god send. She gave me cuddles, love and support. I will never forget her kindness when I was in a really bad and low way.

It’s funny how having something so awful happen to you, you find positives out of it. I have made life-long friends with many ladies that I met through a local support group, Bosom Pals. These ladies along with The Primrose centre and of course The Mustard Tree really helped me.

A group of us newly found friends decided we’d like to pay something back to The Primrose centre and raise some money for them therefore 8 of us got together and decided to call ourselves Dare 2. We organised a dare2 bare ball which was a huge success. It was liberating to say ‘this is me’- after breast cancer there is life and fun to be had. We raised more than £13k at that ball and have continued to support the Primrose Foundation in various fundraising project over the past few years, we plan to continue our support in the future and help this wonderful organisation as much as we can.

These ladies I have met I can’t describe, we are all really close to each other, it’s like we’ve been friends forever and will be forever, Sisters. We understand each other.

Thank you Primrose foundation for all that you do and have done.