Laura's Giving Page

I am walking this event to raise money for breast cancer research, for anyone that has been affected by this no matter how big or small.

My Story

1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Every single pound you donate makes a difference to Cancer Research UK’s ground breaking work. Donate to my Giving Page today and help bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. So here goes, I dont talk about this and not many people are aware of this and it'll be a surprise for some but it wasn't ever a surprise for me. I found a different feeling area in my breast June 2022, I left it for a month as it could just be hormonal right? The doctor could feel it too and referred me to the breast clinic. 17th August 2022 I saw my wonderful consultant for the first time and he sent me for an ultrasound and a biopsy 😖 a week later and I was back listening to him telling me I had stage 2 breast cancer. Before he told me I knew it, I just knew it. I was terrified yes, but I just had a deep down knowing so I just got on with it. I had testing which showed it to be Her2 negative which meant I could go straight to surgery for removal. I had a lumpectomy and all lymph nodes removed in my right arm in October '22, the margins were not clear and I had DCIS (pre cancerous cells) so I would need another surgery but before then I needed chemotherapy. I started chemo at the Velindre hospital at the end of November which lasted until March 2023. Surgery was then scheduled for April which was moved 2 times due to needing emergency scans and waiting for results. May '23 I had a mastectomy, upon inspection of the removed breast they found another tumour. After recovering from surgery I needed radiotherapy which I had in August. I have not long started my hormone treatment, I require injections every 3 months, bone infusions every 6 months for 3 years, calcium tablets for 3 years, x2 daily tablets for 2 years and another daily tablet for 5-10 years. I've also been put into early menopause because the cancer was ER+ I had to have almost a year off from work whilst having treatment, I'm now back but having regular hospital appointments and blood tests, they can never find my veins now because they're small and are sick of being punctured by needles all the time. I have had and still have to have MRI scans, CT scans and nuclear medicine scans (that's fun, they inject radioactive dye into your veins). So that's me, I've gone from being scared of checking myself to checking every 1st of the month and I encourage everyone to do the same! It's scary to think of what could happen but the alternative is so much scarier. I can't do much to give back what the wonderful team at the Velindre and the Gwent have done for me but raising money to be used to research this horrible thing is easy, with everyone's help! Throughout September I have skipped 10 minutes a day for Macmillan and now in October I will be taking part in the Shine Walk with my friend Karen, who has also known how cruel cancer can be 💔 So please, if you can do one thing please check yourself and if you can please also donate, its a really long walk!!!