White sauce

Thursday 29 December 2016

It's Scarlett's 10th birthday, I'm making a leftover turkey pie, the phone rings, it's 6.30pm.

Me: 'Timmy, can you get that, I'm making the white sauce*'

Timmy: 'Well, it won't be for me...'

Timmy answers the phone.  'Kate, it's for you.....'

So I go off and answer the phone to my breast consultant. Hmmm, this can't be good.

And here it begins.  I'm told my breast cancer has come back after eight years. I am to meet him at the new Worcester Breast Unit tomorrow at 11.30am.

I feel a wave of prickly heat comes over me and then I feel queasy, numb in the head and my mouth goes as dry as the bottom of a budgie's cage.

I tell Tim.  We hold each other. We can't believe it.

I call Susie, she can't believe it and says we can go over to her house if we want a change of scene.

The turkey pie is cooked. I manage to eat a few mouthfuls.  We go over to Susie's. We go over what's been said - we all hope it's another primary breast cancer.

Can this really be happening?

BACKGROUND

I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in 2008, aged 32.  I had surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and five years of hormone treatment. I finished my full treatment in 2014 and have had regular annual mammograms and check ups as well as a couple of bone scans because of some back pain.  Thankfully, all appeared to be 'cancer free'.  During that time I had been introduced to Susie (my best friend) who had also had cancer at a young age (26) and, along with her husband Chris, became a life line to Tim and I as people who understood what we were going through and the physical and emotional rollercoaster that cancer brings. 

We helped to raise tens of thousands of pounds between 2009 and 2016 to create a dedicated Breast Unit at the Worcester Royal Hospital and that dream came true in Feb 2016 when the doors to the Worcestershire Breast Unit Haven opened to patients for the first time. www.breastunitevents.co.uk

In October 2016, four months after turning 40, I felt a pain in my chest. Drs thought it was a pulled muscle, then stress (and put me on valium!). My breast consultant sent me for a couple of scans just to rule out anything else. Uh oh! Although the bone scan was clear, the CT scan showed something else entirely....

And so it begins.....

*Disclaimer - this is rare - Timmy does pretty much all the cooking in our house!!