Interview 34

Age at interview: 53

Brief Outline:

Had mammogram at age 50 done privately. Was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and had treatment. Has mammograms annually in private sector.

Background:

A director, married with 1 adult child.

She decided to have a private mammogram rather than wait for an NHS appointment.

You were expecting a letter from the NHS to go for a mammogram once you had turned fifty?

Yes, I expected to be called. I wasn't actually, I actually booked the private one before I was fifty I made an, because I phoned up about two months before to the NHS knowing that I was going to be fifty and ask them when I could expect to be called, and it was when they told me "Well any time within the next three years", I thought that's too long. And I don't know why I thought it was too long Suman, I just thought it was too long and that's why I organised the private one.

Did you know much about breast screening before that, you knew you were going to get a letter, did you know about that through friends or through things you'd read?

I think with, I've always known that you can get mammograms once you reach the age of fifty on the NHS and you should be called routinely. And I thought it's coming up to my fiftieth birthday. This is my fiftieth birthday present to myself.

So I actually paid for a mammogram privately as a fiftieth birthday present.

She believes that fewer women would die from breast cancer if routine breast screening started before the age of fifty.

So would you recommend women to go for screening before the age of 50 if they could? 

Absolutely, if you can. I mean I just, I met so many women when I was having chemotherapy who were in their early forties and mid forties and I was probably the oldest one of that particular lot that was going through it at the time. And I was only fifty and I think that the NHS must be missing a lot of patients and a lot of cases. And I think that certainly if there is a history of breast cancer in the family, they should be going from a very early age. 

And I think routine screenings should start at forty. I really think that we're losing too many people younger and there's no need for it. I mean okay we can't cure breast cancer but we can extend peoples lives and its' not acceptable, and I know that there are lots of other cancers and I know there is limited funds available. 

But surely it's going to be cheaper to screen and treat earlier than it is to treat later. You know maybe so many families wouldn't be left without mums, sisters, daughters and husbands, because obviously men can develop breast cancer as well. And I think, I, yes I do, I think it should be definitely given early and I'd like to see it on the NHS yearly from the age of forty. How practical that is I don't know but that's what I'd like to see.
 

Wishes she had continued having breast screening between the ages of forty and fifty.

I had had one of the mammograms privately in- ten years ago, so sort of when I was about forty and I'd had that done privately through work. Because what they did I worked for a company at the time and Bupa had approached them and said "Look we're offering cut rate mammograms to your employees, if they want to take advantage of it" so they offered it out to us. And I think they subsidised it as well and it cost practically nothing at the time. And I thought "Well, I know, you know, sort of that it, I'm probably not, my breast tissue's probably not dense enough" or I thought my breast tissue was probably not dense enough, because they say it isn't until you get older. But in actual fact I think that when I spoke to the lady Radiographers there, they said "If you are from thirty five onwards you can do mammograms" because the breast tissue will take it.

So I'd had this one, so I knew what to expect then. At that time I didn't, when I had this original one I didn't know what to expect but when I went back, when I was fifty, I knew what to expect. The only thing I wish I'd done was kept it up in between. 

Decided to have a mammogram done privately because a colleague had recently had breast cancer.

What prompted me was the fact that this Centre Manager, that the Manager of the centre, the business centre, where we had our administration offices and some of our training offices, was actually diagnosed with breast cancer and she was a year older than I was. 

It was because [the Centre Manager] had actually been diagnosed with breast cancer. I think adding the whole thing - and I was coming up to fifty - and adding the whole thing together I just thought 'I think I'll treat myself to one for my birthday'.

Was recalled for further tests which showed cancer.

So they phoned me and they said that they - which was unusual but because of the circumstances - they told me that they'd found something a bit suspicious on the mammogram and they thought I should go in and have a stereotactic test, a needle test where they take tissue from the area affected and check it out. 

So about a week later I actually went in and again I paid for this privately - I don't have private health care, it's just that I wanted to get it over with quickly. So I went in and had the stereotactic test, which was absolutely fine. I never felt a thing. So even though I was nervous going in, I had the ultrasound as well, I really was not in any sort of pain whatsoever, I never felt anything. They were extremely good, they gave me lots of local anaesthetic, not a thing.

The results came through the following week. And they came back as positive and I went in to see the Radiologist and he told me that it was grade five B, that it was an aggressive invasive cancer. But that it was only about sixteen millimetres in diameter and it was about four centimetres in my left breast. So I actually wouldn't have felt it at all, it was just there. 

Has mammograms done privately because she sees the same consultant every time and get the results...

I'm still seeing the consultant every six months and I still pay to go and see the Consultant privately mainly because, as good as they were in the NHS, when it came to follow-up I never saw the same person twice and I wanted somebody who had seen me through this and who knew me as a person. Who knew, and I mean, he knows what I do for a living, he knows me when I walk through the door, he knows how I work and what sort of personality I am.

So I suppose it's been three and half years. I had my last mammogram January, now that would be three months ago, touch wood I'm still clear. I do get, I am a very grounded person and I'm an intelligent, educated adult, as is everybody else, and I'm a very grounded person and I'm very logical and I still get worried whenever I'm coming up to a mammogram. So it's happening to me, it's happening to everybody. And you always think "This is the one, they're going to find it" and I'm no different and I cannot believe that I'm any different from anybody else. And I still go private for my mammograms because I cannot bear to wait the length of time that it takes the NHS to come back, two to three weeks to tell you you're clear. And I just can't, I can't hack that. 

So I pay for a mammogram every year and I go and I get the results within ten minutes of that mammogram being taken. So if it's good I'll know straight away and if it's bad I'll know straight away. And I won't waste any time, and I won't waste time at home worrying about it, because I worried enough that last month going up to it, I don't want to worry about it afterwards as well. 

Feels more anxious about having mammograms the further she is from her treatment.

I think with time it gets worse. The further away you are from the original occurrence, for me, the worse it's got. So I'm now three and a half years away and it, having the mammogram this time was more worrying than having it twelve months after the operation. Because I knew that twelve months after the operation, with chemotherapy and radiotherapy it was highly unlikely that I would develop another tumour in that time. Now however we're getting further away from the treatment so we're getting further away from the original primary cancer. And I know that if it's going to happen it's going to happen, sometime. Maybe never, but the further away I get the more I worry about it. It's not, it doesn't take over my life but it does worry me. 

Feels screening saved her life because she'd had no symptoms but her cancer had affected her...

It was very tiny. It was four centimetres within the breast. It was sixteen millimetres in diameter and it was four centimetres within my breast. I would never have found that and to be honest I don't think I would have found it until it was too late. Because it was an aggressive invasive, it was at stage five B then. Now you know, by the time I would have found it, it was in two of my nodes already and I didn't know. I don't, I think she saved my life. I think I've had three years that I wouldn't have had if that woman hadn't have found that tumour because it was just such a late stage.  

A lump she found turned out to be a harmless in-growing follicle.

I suppose going all the way back, when I was about twenty six I did actually find a small lump under my left breast. And that was actually diagnosed as an in-growing hair follicle eventually and I had it removed under local anaesthetic. No problems. 

As I say when I was twenty six, twenty seven I had this problem with this little in-growing hair follicle under my boob and I did action that straight away. I'd discovered a little, it's like a little spot and then gradually as my bras were rubbing on it, it was becoming sore. So it was only a matter of weeks and I went to the Doctor and that happened fairly quickly as well. So I'm not the type to ignore symptoms and yet I know a lot of people do do and have done. And you know, the longer you leave it the worse the prognosis. So I've never been one to actually ignore things.