As many people know Pink is not a colour I wear. I generally only wear Pink for events that are fund raising or drawing attention to breast cancer. I have done this previously to honour a family member and a friend I have lost to the disease and to provide support to other friends who have gone through the breast cancer journey. This year I want to remind women of the importance of checking their breasts and going for their routine screening mammograms.
In mid-December 2023 I received an email reminder that my routine screening mammogram was due. As you can imagine with Christmas just around the corner it was easily put to one side and forgotten. In January I had a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something important so I went back through my emails and found the reminder. I set up an appointment, had the mammogram and felt great that I had ticked off an item on my To Do List. I then promptly forgot all about it, that was until I received a phone call letting me know that my mammogram had picked up something unusual that needed further investigation.
At this point an amazing fast and slick system kicked into action. I had additional mammograms, ultrasounds and biopsy carried out. Within less than a month from my routine mammogram I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am forever grateful and amazingly blessed that my cancer was detected early and before it became invasive. Due to this early detection some of the harsher treatments like chemotherapy were not necessary. I only needed surgery and radiation therapy.
In just over six months I was through the system and back to routine screening, although at a shorter interval between mammograms. Generally I am well, only struggling a little with some lingering side effects of radiation. Due to these side effects I am only walking the 5K route in the Pink Ribbon Walk.
The Breast Cancer Foundation NZ organisation supports the 9 women diagnosed with breast cancer each day in NZ (that’s over 3500 women a year), they support the women’s families, they provide education on breast cancer, run awareness campaigns, are patient advocates and fund research into better treatments and earlier detections. With about 650 women dying from breast cancer each year in NZ the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ’s long term goal is to have no one dying from breast cancer due to better and earlier detection and better treatments to prevent the cancer from spreading.
I want to give back to the organisation who has helped me in my journey and I ask that those who maybe in a position to do so, to please consider donating to support me in my endeavour to raise $350 to help the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ.
Well done!