Interview 37

Age at interview: 60

Brief Outline:

Had routine mammograms since her 40s because of family history of breast cancer. In 1997 took part in medical research, including a mammogram. Invasive breast cancer was discovered and had treatment.

Background:

A volunteer, married with 3 adult children.

She started having mammograms before she was fifty because of a family history of breast cancer.

Then over the next fifteen to eighteen years I had another three benign lumps removed at various times, by which time I'd got terribly blas' about this, and you know, they were always going to be benign, until my mother died of breast cancer, in the days before, of course, screening was available. That was 1982, she was 61 years old, and that concentrates the mind wonderfully. 

Because of that I was under more regular screening. I was started on mammograms before I reached 50, which locally is the age at which they do it. They were doing them every two years, and that was fine.

A mammogram done in a research project detected a cancer.

We were about eighteen months since a two-yearly mammogram, and I read an appeal for volunteers for a thing called the Ibis Project, which wanted to test the effects of tamoxifen, so I volunteered for this. I went down to [the hospital], and before they actually start you on the project, they give you a mammogram, just in case there's anything there.

Within a week I'd had a needle biopsy, which is a thoroughly unpleasant experience that I wouldn't recommend to anybody, but necessary, and the result of that was that it was a cancerous lump. A very small one, and not palpable by hand, so I really am extremely grateful to that mammogram, because it would have been another few months, possibly six months, before I was due for my next regular mammogram. These things can come so quickly in between. 

What happened next? Oh then, of course, you get to the discussion as to what you are going to do, are you going to go for a lumpectomy, followed by, probably chemo or radio, or are you going to go for a complete mastectomy? 

Now has mammograms every two years and doesn't feel anxious beforehand.

I had regular follow ups, first of all six monthly I think and then it went to annually. Last year, after nearly six years, they signed me off from the breast clinic, except for regular mammograms; we're back to every two years now, and they were annual during the five years after the operation.

So you go every two years now?  

Now, yes, yes. 

And before going now, would you still feel a bit anxious? 

Not particularly, I don't think. Been there, done that, you know [Laughs]. Lightening doesn't strike twice, I keep telling myself. 

Believes that breast screening saved her life, despite scepticism in the medical field about...

It was a cancerous lump. A very small one, and not palpable by hand, so I really am extremely grateful to that mammogram, because it would have been another few months, possibly six months, before I was due for my next regular mammogram. These things can come so quickly in between. 

Because I do feel that someone was looking after me, that sent me for this Ibis trial, just at that time, because had it been another six months before I had a mammogram, had it been six months further on, it could have been out through the nodes. It could be right through the body - well maybe not that fast, unless it was a very aggressive one. 

I think it's a splendid, a splendid scheme and no matter what some of those that decry it say, it should be continued. I think it's saved a lot of lives. It certainly saved mine.  

She had several benign lumps in the past, some of which were fibroadenomas.

Well my first problem with my breast came a very long time ago, when I was studying for my A levels, and I discovered a lump in the breast, which was removed just before I went up to university. 

You told me right at the beginning that you were only eighteen or nineteen when you had your first lump. You had that removed in hospital? 

Yes. 

And that was benign. Did they say what it was?

I'm not entirely sure. I think they said fibroadenoma, but I was fairly young, I was not medically informed, and unfortunately my medical records from those days have been destroyed because I was out of the country for more than three years. And you know, you do run the risk of this happening, although I had told them I was going and told them I was coming back. When I came back I had no NHS records, so we do not have a record of what it was. Whether I'd formed the idea that it was a fibroadenoma because of subsequent diagnoses or whether I actually heard that word then, I can't really be certain I'm afraid.

So subsequent lumps were fibroadenomas?  

Yes, except the one in the milk duct. That was described as a polyp. 

And that was removed surgically?  

Yes, oh yes. Yes, they were all surgically removed.
 

Bleeding from a nipple turned out to be from a benign polyp which she had removed.

Then some, in the late seventies - that would have been 1962 - in the late seventies when I was married and a mother of three - the next one was a bleeding from the nipple, which after various investigations turned out to be a polyp in a milk duct, which again was removed, and was found to be benign, so that was fine. 

She spoke to friends who had also had breast cancer.

Also I did have a number of friends who had either just been through the same thing, or were just going through it. It was one of these sort of clusters, perhaps. At one time I knew twelve people in my immediate circle, who had either just had or were having a mastectomy or a lumpectomy, or chemotherapy or radiotherapy. And it just seemed to be strange that there were so many of us all at the same time. Obviously there have been others since but not so many all at once, and yes, it was great to be able to ring up someone I knew, who was perhaps a year or two ahead, and say, "Did your arm still ache when you went shopping?" and also talk about prostheses, and you know, "Where did you find the best bras? What sort of prosthesis have you got?" 

As I said there was ... it was later that perhaps I used the friends more, because - Although just after the operation there was one particular friend that I used to swap tips with. How do you stop your scar pulling? Try massaging with baby oil, these sorts of tips are useful, because you don't always get those from the health care professionals. They're things that individuals have found work for them.