Breast screening… My experience…

Hi, I'm Karen. Um, recently, um, I found a lump in my left breast. Um, I was really frightened, um, because we've got a family history of breast cancer in our family, um, especially, uh, it was my mum, but we've got further than that as well, and cervical cancer, so it, um, really kind of. when he, when I got it, I was like, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do? Um, so that, that's kind of the history behind it, um

I, when I found the lump, I told my mum and I told Martin, my partner. I got, I don't know what I expected from my mum, but my mum actually, I probably picked the wrong time to tell her, to be honest. I will use humour throughout this cause that's who I am

Cause we were on our way to my uncle's funeral and I told her I had. This lump in my breast while I was driving in the car and she nearly jumped out of the car and she, my mum really gets frightened about stuff like that, so maybe I picked the wrong time, but also I think she'd have always got frightened about it, um, worried about me, um. So Martin and me, Martin was lovely, um, he is lovely

Me and Martin, like I say in our relationship, use a lot of humour, so I know when he says let's go out for tea, that means we're gonna talk about it. So even before going for the appointment and, and doing whatever we did, we'd already gone. We, we knew where we were going, so if it, if it is cancer, what are you, what do you want, Karen? What do you want me to sit at the side of you and help you with, cos he's really good like that

And I says, well, actually I don't think I could cope with just a lumpectomy. I'd want somehow or another to ask for a full mastectomy, I said cos I couldn't cope with the thought of it even coming back, um, and so we we decided um. On that, on that day that I, I would ask for that, whether it was possible, and I was gonna have a tattoo and we sat and designed the tattoo and everything and uh we also then named my boobs Samson and Delilah

So this is Delilah and this is Samson. So, like I say, humour really helps in my world. Um, I went to see my GP really quickly

She was absolutely brilliant, the GP I went to see. Um, and within 7 days, I was on the pathway, but it didn't work out very well because I went the first time and they didn't have anyone there to do the mammogram. And he was not a very nice doctor at all or consultant on that one, so I had to go back the week after, and by that point I was really quite tired with it, um, so I, I was really quite tired

I was getting more, more and more tired with it. We were still using the humour. Um, but we went back the week afterward, to be fair, I got a lot better consultant

She had bright purple hair and big purple heels on, and Martin, Martin said, you look lovely, my dear, like you would, um, and she said I was going for the purple vomit look. That's all I remember about her. Um, but she was absolutely lovely, um, because the first consultant I've been to, I can't really feel it, she said, yeah, there's definitely a lump there, we need to, we need to go

So that I, I went through to um the clinic was lovely the ladies at the clinic. a beautiful, um, Martin couldn't come in with me and I really do think this is unfair. So he had to sit in the men's waiting room, or the, the waiter, cos there were men there as well who had breast cancer

He had to sit in this other waiting room and they got biscuits, we didn't. So he had a full plate of biscuits which told him off for. But Martin's 6'5 and he was hungry, so whatever, but they're absolutely lovely

So you went through in little booths and like I said, I did my humour bit again and it were like, I don't know if people will remember, but Mr. Ben, it were like you went in and gotcha Mr. Ben cartoon when I were little, you went in this little bit

You got changed into your stuff and then you went back out and, and you enter the room where the mammogram was, and they did the mammogram for you, a lovely, lovely lady who was, um, she was from Newcastle though and I couldn't hear her cos I've had hearing aids out. So, um, they've not passed on the fact that I was deaf. Partially deaf when I went through, so that was a bit of a barrier first of all, but then once I told her, um she she sorted it just cos of the different accent

So, um, but they were lovely. And then I came out of there, um, and then I had to go for an ultrasound as well, um, cos I had bruising as well, which is another sign of it. Um, and, um, I went for the ultrasound and because she was a clinical lead or whatever she was, she just told me, yeah, fine, you can go home

And I'd want expecting that I was expecting to have to go see the consultant again. So I came out, I came running back to my Martin, and he gave me the biggest hug and I were like, I'm not gonna die. Delilah's OK

Delilah's screenshot was all right because that's what we've been saying. Delilah's photograph was all right. She's fine, is Delilah

So yeah, and so then, um, later that night we went out again and we did a celebration of life. We went out for dinner and Martin was like, just spend what you want, eat. What you want, and I've got diabetes, but I had my first dessert in like forever

We ate and drink, and he said, this is a celebration of life, but we'll make you laugh because my Martin is very practical as well. And he said, it's also a celebration of life because today I found out my MOT cost £500 less than I thought it. So he said, I thought it was gonna be a really bad day

He says, I found out my MOTs not costing me £500 and I said, you're not gonna die. It's sort of a good day. So yeah, um, I told about, I said about my mum being upset and scared

My mum was just so relieved afterwards, um. And uh we are gonna, we're gonna have to go privately cos I, I have got breast cancer in my family, we don't, the family history clinics don't fall into where we fall into cos we've not got a big family. So I'm in the process at the moment paying privately for the BRCA gene tests as well, cos I just want them

I want to know whether I've got the BRCA genes which can tell you whether you're at really high risk of breast cancer, um. And like I say, I've talked about the humour bit, and that carried on with me. I've still got, to be fair to this day, we still call them Samson and Delilah, so my boobs have got names Samson and Delilah

I don't even know where it came from, to be fair, but that's it. The people who really supported me in it, Martin, obviously, he just showed his unconditional love, which he always does. I'm so lucky to have a man in that I have like him

Um, I say, I found him on the internet and 19 sorry, 19 years ago, we've lived together 15 years, um, and I was so lucky to find him. Um, he's such a he is a lovely, lovely man, um. Um, uh, my mum, um, I sometimes wonder whether I should have actually told her

I, I would have always told her cos I'm quite close to my mum. I'd spent years not being close to her, so I'd have always told her, but, uh, but she lives on her own. And she'd had breast cancer herself, so she I mean she had breast cancer 30 years ago and still alive, she's OK, but, She lives on her own, and I, I kind of worried about that afterwards, I thought, but then I thought she'd have been really upset with me if he hadn't have told her

Um, Kelly from work was absolutely amazing cos when I came out of the doctor's and the doctors confirmed I had a 1.5 centimetre lump in my breast. First person I rang sat cos she knew I was going

Um, I, I rang, I sat in the car, I said, I have, it's 1.5 centimetres and whatever, and Kelly was like, right, OK. We've been here with me, I'm there at any appointment you want me to go to, and I, she says, I've been waiting for your phone call, she said, cause I knew what you'd be like, she says, I've known you a long, long time

Um, and she said, just, I'll be there for you, whatever you need, um, and she said, um, and then we got, we got funny cos, um, it was her other breast cos that she'd had breast cancer in. So then we started calling each other lefty and righty so that we'd have had a weakney if, if, if mine was the worst it could have been. We'd have had equal because it'd have been left, we were lefty and righty to each other from from that point

To be honest, the person that surprised me the most was my brother. I haven't spoken to my brother. I started speaking to him about 1 year and a half ago I haven't spoken to him for about 8 years

We've had a rocky relationship, and he was really good. So that was my surprise. My surprise was my brother, um, and when I told him, um, you know, he's kind of, I think, started to accept me for who I am, cos he's very different to what I am

And um when I said oh I said and I've called it Deli. I've called them Samson and Deli and he went oh you could call your boobs, names like that. He said, I don't know anyone else in the world but my sister Karen who could actually do that, um, and he, he called me at every point through it to make sure I was OK, um, and

That's different for my brother, um, so I don't, I think our relationship's changing and that kind of thing. So that's, that's kind of what happened to me. It was a good story, but there were bits of it that, you know, that I, you know, the hospital when I first turned up, that first day that I went, it was a ticky ticky box exercise because actually they have to see you within 14 days

And so they saw me, but they knew there was no one to do the mammogram. There's absolutely no point in seeing me that day. So they dragged me in

I'd got myself all psyched up to go, but they did their tick box that day, um, but then I was pleased to see the consultant that I did in the end, um, but yeah, I did feel a bit tick boxed that day. But apart from that, uh, um, all I, the positive for me is the absolutely beautiful people I have in my life who will help me with that.