My Story

My Breast Cancer Story/Journey started on the 4th of February 2013. My name is Marcie . I am 43 years old . I am married and we have one beautiful little girl who is 6 years old. We live in Sydney, Australia. I lost my Mum on the 7th of December 2012. She was diagnosed in August 2012 with Lung Cancer. In October 2012 I went with her and held her so she could have a mammogram. She was then also diagnosed with Breast Cancer, separate to the Lung Cancer. Doctors refused any treatment for my Mum and we lost her in December. That was the hardest time of my life. Losing a loved one changes you forever and my life was never going to be the same. February 2013 - For two mornings in a row after I woke in the morning I struggled to sit up in bed. The pain across my chest was unbearable. It reminded me of when I had mastitis after having my daughter. I have never checked my breasts for lumps. It is something that I know every woman should do regularly, but in saying that, I know my breasts and if there was anything unusual there I would know straight away. On the third morning I touched my breast and I felt a lump. It was the size of a marble and it was painful. I got my husband to touch it too, just to make sure he could feel it too and he could. The first thing he said was that I had to go to the Doctor. I've never been one for going to Doctors and usually I would have left it and waited a few weeks to see if it went away but I think because I had just lost Mum , I went to the Doctor on the Monday, two days after finding my lump. That same day I looked at myself in the mirror and said, " Girl, your life has just changed forever" and then I cried. I guess I already knew that I had Breast Cancer. I had already, as you do, scanned the internet for info. on breast lumps. All the info.I could find said that Breast Cancer is not painful. Great, so I went to my G.P confident that it was a cyst or something. My G.P did a breast exam , asked me my family history and told me I had breast cancer. Just like that, he knew! He wrote me out a referral for a Breast Surgeon, and sent me for a mammogram and ultrasound. He told me to ring the surgeon straight away and if I couldn't get in within 2 weeks to call him and he will refer me to someone else. And so my story begins...