I’d never been in hospital before so it was quite strange to me. And they asked me what I’d like to be called and I said’ “Well, [name] you know and so on. They put that on the door. And the nurses were very nice and kind and they came and told me and the consultant came, told me what would happen.

And the, on the morning of the operation I had a little sort of, kind of sleeping pill or something to make me relaxed I think. And then I went down on the trolley and they gave me a little injection.

And the next thing, I was a bit worried having never had an operation, never been in a hospital before. But they were all very you know comforting and so on, told me what would happen, that I would just doze off and everything. Well the next thing I heard was’ “Are you ready to go back to the ward now?” And I was so surprised, you know.

I mean people who have operations probably know that you just pass out and that’s the next thing you hear, but I was so staggered you know. I thought my goodness, you know. But there it was and then I was up in my room and I was really quite fit you know. I was sort of compus mentis and thought that you know I’d be pretty shaken and everything but I was alright actually.

Well you go into hospital and of course you have all the usual check-ups beforehand and then they take you up to the theatre. They give you something to relax you first, take you up to the theatre and operate.

The surgeon comes round first and tells you what’s going to happen and what they’re going to do, and why they’re not giving you a mastectomy and why they’re doing this.

Because that’s, they give you conservation surgery now instead of, so you’ve still got something there. Even though it’s a different shape but you can be built up if you want to. But I never was, didn’t matter that much to me, I’m not that young anyway.

But then you go up to surgery and of course then you don’t really know anything until you come out. And I come out of surgery and I was in a lot of pain.

Did you have a drain and things like that?

Yes, you had a drain.You walk around with a drain all the time until it clears. Yeah, a bag, yeah.

And stitches, did you have?

No. I didn’t have stitches no, no just the drain. Well I, no that’s a lie, that’s a lie. Of course I had stitches because I had stitches where I had the surgery. And they took the lymph glands away and I had stitches under my arm.

But she was an absolutely marvellous surgeon because you can’t hardly see anything.

So in the hospital I saw many things.

I know that I don’t know English and when the doctor come he can’t communicate with me. He can’t speak to me, he can’t ask me if I have pain.

Even the women who were working there, they can’t ask me “How is your pain?”

And my neighbour who was there who was sick like me, they give medicine to her. They give medicine, injection to her, and I’m there.

When morning my sister came and they speak to my sister, I was very surprised because I said’ “Why? The same disease this woman has, they give medicine to her and they didn’t give anything to me.” So I was depressed in this hospital. I didn’t speak, because I can’t speak. What can I say to the doctor who want to, they told me two days, three days, they didn’t give anything to me.

And they told me “You have to go home because we don’t have place here.”

In this time my breast, the wound they did, it was open again. They didn’t take the time to close it, and they told me to go home. I went home and when I went home it was very open, so I was crying. And it was infected.

When I came back in hospital to tell the nurse, who was in hospital, about my breast they said’ “It’s not infected.” Because oh, you know, water was coming out.

So I cry, cry. And I went to see my GP because he is from France, I can speak French with him. And when I went to see my GP, oh he was, he was surprised.

He give medicine to me, antibiotic, and one woman who is the nurse in this hospital, where my GP is, this woman is very good. She helped me. She told my GP to give medicine to me and she told me to come every day to do the, what do you call it, to put medicine on my breast.

He said that he would be doing the surgery and what happens with the mini-flap operation is that it needs two operations.

So you’d have one – his usual operating times were Tuesday and Thursday but he would need to book me a special slot on the Monday in order to make the anaesthetist happy about putting me under for a second time.

I was in hospital all this time. So it was from the Sunday we checked in and Monday was the first operation. The Wednesday was when I found out about the lymph nodes and the Thursday was the second operation.

And I went in for the surgery and hed explained it was a longer surgery, so it takes longer to get over. Plus the fact it’s like two operations. So I came round from the second operation with two drains in.

Where exactly had they moved muscle from, or tissue from?

It’s hard to explain but they’d moved, they’d swung one part of the shoulder muscle round in. So it kind of comes underneath the armpit and goes through.

I remember looking down after the surgery because as part of the surgery they ask you to keep your bra, to bring in an old bra and keep your bra on so that the breast has got support.

And I remember looking down and seeing that I still had a cleavage and I was so happy! Nothing hurt.

My shoulder was stiff and the physiotherapist came round and had exercises for me to do and I did them, and I can move my arm fine now.

It’s not a problem at all.

I went for the operation, which was supposed to be under local anaesthetic. I went with my friend and my daughter on the eleventh. They went to the museum while I’m going in.

But just as they were pushing me into the theatre I was told that it’s going to be on general anaesthetic.

I refused and then was told then I would be again on the waiting list, and knowing the waiting lists in this country I thought’ “Okay, I trust you with my life.” I went in and they pushed me out at four o’clock, at four-thirty I was discharged.

And I was just given pain killers, no instructions what to do if complications come. I went straight to bed. Ten o’clock at night I woke up with a terrible pain and my breast swollen twice its original size.

She called the hospital they said yeah we have to go to Accident and Emergency. We went there, we arrived there at 12 o’clock, we sit there until five o’clock in the morning and when the doctor came to see me she just, she didn’t even look at my breast.

She listened to what I was telling her and she prescribed the same painkillers because I took the painkillers and the letter. She didn’t even open the letter which I was given for my GP which I thought in that case she was supposed to open.