My SBC Journey: Danielle

My name is Danielle I’m 36 and I’m a mum to 2 boys. Louis 14 and Charlie 11.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2019 after a lot of biopsies. I had a CT scan and that picked up tiny lesions on my spine in a few places. My oncologist wasn’t entirely sure it was cancer related so I went ahead with chemotherapy to shrink my breast lump and “mop” up any stray cells before I had a double mastectomy.

In January this year I had another ct scan to see how effective the chemotherapy was and that’s what my secondaries were confirmed. I was told by my oncologist that the lesions had shown a response to the chemo and were more prominent on the scan, my whole world fell apart as I then knew I was incurable but treatable.

My oncologist then stopped chemo and put me onto hormone therapy as my cancer is heavily oestrogen receptive. I’m currently on ribociclib, letrozle, zoladex and denosumab...I have been put into menopause which I would say give me my biggest side effects from my treatment.

I feel I have had very good treatment and I have full trust in my oncologist, what I do I wish is that when I went to my gp back in 2018 complaining of a lump that they had sent me for a scan as I may not be in the situation I’m in now.

Receiving a secondary cancer diagnoses it the most heart wrenching scary thing to be told and it takes a long time to sink in and find a new normal way of life, don’t be to hard on yourself and take all the time you need.

I’m still struggling now and trying to work out how to try and live a normal life again. I had a scan in May which has shown I’m stable which is fantastic as I was convinced I was going to get bad news, I’m due another scan next month and I’m hoping I get more good news. I’ve not been on many holidays but I went to Greece with my family and 2 boys a few years ago and it was a fantastic holiday and I would love to go back one day!

Thank you for allowing me to share me share my story.