Are you aware?
To mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, our Chief Exec, Nicola Close MBE, shares her own experience and asks how much awareness can really do.
You can’t go far these days without tripping over an awareness day/week/month. I’m not certain they do much good.
While writing this it is ‘migraine awareness week’ My family across the generations are – and were – migraine sufferers so I am very aware that it is a debilitating and work-limiting condition. There are nearly ten million other sufferers in the UK alone (around 10% of whom are estimated to have chronic migraine – ie 15 or more episodes every month) who, I am certain, are very aware. Add in their families and you would think that there was already a lot of awareness out there.
‘You are missing the point’: I hear you say. Of-course, the target of these weeks are those people who really don’t know or understand the particular condition or disease, but like all educational health initiatives they tend to talk to the converted. And that is when I start to wonder just how aware are we, actually, and do we need to act more promptly with that awareness?
In the early 1980s my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She ignored the growing lump (despite, or because, her best friend had died from breast cancer some years before) and it was only diagnosed when she went to A&E for an angina attack. As a consequence, she had to undergo a radical mastectomy and five years of tamoxifen – a newish treatment at the time. Despite four or five recurrences (all caught early) she lived for another 25 years.
Twenty years later in the early 2000s following my first routine screen, I was told (after a one-stop shop approach – one appointment for three different scans ending with a biopsy) that I needed a lumpectomy and radiotherapy to combat my breast cancer. All done and dusted in a few months – cured.
My sister was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer six years later – a horrible silent killer in all probability genetically linked to our breast cancers. She lived for only 18 months more despite aggressive chemotherapy. (Ovarian cancer awareness month, by the way, is in March and there is certainly a lot less awareness of this one.)
So, I am super aware of breast cancer. Been there, done that and got the scars to prove it. So why, oh why, did I allow a small but noticeable change in appearance to morph into a sizeable lump in my other breast. I am now faced with hormone therapy, targeted chemotherapy, surgery and more to get rid of this alien in my body. We are aiming for a cure – but it will be a long road.
My conclusion: awareness clearly isn’t enough.
I thought of it as the possibility of lightening striking me twice (odds of one in nine million of a person being struck twice by lightening apparently). But I am told there is an increasing number of people who get two totally unrelated cancers – about one in twenty cancer patients, occasionally at the same time. This, then, really would be a useful statistic to be aware of.
So I am back in treatment, despite my awareness, and I am very much hoping to continue working except for the surgery and recovery. Currently I am on reduced hours spread widely over the week to give me rest time in between – so be patient if I don’t respond quickly to your emails – and while my immunity is down I have to be careful, so I am not doing face-to-face. Otherwise I am trying to keep up my normal life as far as possible – it helps. It is all too easy to be drawn into the mindset that cancer is the only game in town. I have a migraine every now and again as well which adds variety!
In the spirit of it being Breast Cancer Awareness month I am sharing my story so you, too can be more aware. And more importantly, for you to share that awareness, as well as check for and act on any symptoms. The earlier the better of-course, for all cancers.
Finally, if you would like to support Breast Cancer Now you could sponsor Heather, our Comms Manager who is fundraising for them by walking 100 miles in October.