I didn’t have any sign that there was anything wrong and to wait for that lump to appear may be too late. Because the scary part of my journey was doctors telling me that I did have a spread through the lymph glands without me knowing that there was anything going wrong. So, to get that picked up really early, the outcome is so much better. And it’s so important that if you get that invitation to go for screening please, please accept it because the outcome can be so much, much more better than what it could be if you let things run on and you’re not picked up two years later where it’s so much more difficult to control and you would have so much more invasive treatment;

So, where possible, I emphasise the importance of breast screening, that it is so important to avail yourself of that opportunity and be reassured yourself that if you go for screening, that if theres anything there – yes, it can be dealt with and it can be dealt with early. And the outcome is so much more different and life goes on after cancer;

It was very tiny. It was four centimetres within the breast. It was sixteen millimetres in diameter and it was four centimetres within my breast. I would never have found that and to be honest I don’t think I would have found it until it was too late. Because it was an aggressive invasive, it was at stage five B then. Now you know, by the time I would have found it, it was in two of my nodes already and I didn’t know. I don’t, I think she saved my life. I think I’ve had three years that I wouldn’t have had if that woman hadn’t have found that tumour because it was just such a late stage;

What amazes me is that, you know, we have the capabilities with mammograms today to pick these up so early and if you get cancer early, particularly breast cancer, it’s a completely survivable thing. I mean if I had had a mammogram earlier I wouldn’t even have had the chemo. So I’m quite strongly for mammograms.

I think had I been aware that women my age and the number of women my age get it with no history whatsoever, I would have happily paid and gone privately here, to go and have a mammogram on an annual basis. I would, I was lulled into a sense that it didn’t apply to me;

What would you say to someone who was invited for a mammogram and, because of what they’d heard or read, wasn’t sure about going;

I would say you are your own best advocate. There is no doctor, no healthcare system, no friend, no relative, no husband that’s going to care about you or help the way that you can. And that, I would say, don’t even wait to be invited. Take this into your own hands. You have absolute control of this. You can complain about the healthcare system. You can complain that you are not invited until you’re fifty or that you only get one every three years or you can take it in your own hands and say this is my life and my health were talking about. I want a mammogram;

I’d recommend them [women] to go, because if I wasn’t being screened theres no way I’d have found the lump, even after they’d detected it I came home and still couldt feel the lump. So I don’t know how long it would have been if it had got left, before it was noticeable. If it was growing inwards I probably wouldt have noticed it. So I’d definitely say to go for screening. If people have got a family history I’d say definitely seriously think about being screened. And obviously with the older age group as well, you know I’ve said it before, if I hadt been screened I wouldt have known I’d had it. So to me it’s the thing that saved me really, very positive, yes.

So, in your words, what are your opinions about screening because in your case it wasn’t picked up;

I know, I must say at first I was really angry and hurt and I really was upset, why? Why was mine not picked up? But I would tell all women to go for breast screening, I really would, you know and I continue to go myself. I think it’s something you just have to do;

So, at one point you were thinking, well the mammogram didn’t pick up anything, didn’t pick up your cancer, what’s the point of having it, but you’ve changed your views?

I have, I have because I say my friend, I mean hers was detected by a mammogram, so I suppose like everything else, that theres, nothing is one hundred per cent accurate, you know, and therell always be, well I won’t say mistakes about myself, but therell always be ones that go undetected, you know. And I must say, I’m not very good, and never was very good at examining my breasts on a regular basis, but I do try and do it more often;

It was a cancerous lump. A very small one, and not palpable by hand, so I really am extremely grateful to that mammogram, because it would have been another few months, possibly six months, before I was due for my next regular mammogram. These things can come so quickly in between;

Because I do feel that someone was looking after me, that sent me for this Ibis trial, just at that time, because had it been another six months before I had a mammogram, had it been six months further on, it could have been out through the nodes. It could be right through the body – well maybe not that fast, unless it was a very aggressive one;

I think it’s a splendid, a splendid scheme and no matter what some of those that decry it say, it should be continued. I think it’s saved a lot of lives. It certainly saved mine;

I mean is it not better to know what you have? Is it not the worst thing to not know you have breast cancer, it must be terrible, it’s better to know you have it. I mean look at me, I only had three millimetres. I don’t know how they spotted that, it was so tiny but you know, if it stops me getting it worse, I’m so happy. I mean I’m so lucky. I keep thinking I’m so lucky. And I do count my blessings, you know. It’s funny, at the time you just think “Oh, this is the worst thing in the world” but then you realise, when you come out, you know through it all, you realise “Gosh, I’m so lucky”. You know, I’m saying that so often and you know, all my friends and my family are so good to me and everything. I’m just blessed you know. I never thought I could come out of breast cancer.

You know, from the very beginning I didn’t, you know, I couldn’t believe that I had breast cancer but the more I meet people, the more I read and the more I, you know, hear about it, is that I’m very lucky. They’ve caught it at the beginning and thank God for breast screening because they would never have got it;