At 20 years old, I thought I was invincible. At 20 years old, you do not worry about things like breast cancer, you worry about boys and university assignments. I had been 20 for three months when I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma on Wednesday 11th September, 2013.
Despite the fact that I had had a lump for a while before that, I never assumed that it would be anything other than a cyst, and I think it shocked everybody (me, my family, my doctors). I had to attend a number of appointments; consultants, geneticists, psychologists.
Despite the fact that no faulty genes were picked up, my high family history of breast cancer and Acute Myloblastic Leukaemia meant that having chemotherapy and radiotherapy would put me at risk of developing further cancers, so we decided that a bilateral mastectomy was the best way forward - one side diagnostic, the other prophylactic as I would otherwise have about an 81% chance of recurrence.
So on the 6th November 2013, I said ta-ta to my tatas. I hated the thought of losing this element of my femininity, particularly so young, but I knew that it would save my life, and in a way that empowered me. I had immediate reconstruction, and despite a couple of complications, all is well. On 17th December, I also had an axillary node clearance due to local spread. In total, 4 of 27 nodes were affected. Although this means my cancer was quite advanced, I was lucky that so few contained metastasis.
I was put on tamoxifen and zoladex, but reacted badly, and I am waiting for a fertility appointment before we take the next step.
I have spent the time since my operations getting back to the things I love and trying to achieve my dreams. It has made me realise how fragile life is. As hard as this journey has been, life is getting back to normal and am me again!
Lincoln, United Kingdom
