Guest Blog - Carmen Murphy

        I said from the start I never wanted to make the blog or the campaign about me because Unfortunately there are many other people effected by this horrible illness! So I was over the moon when a work colleague of mine agreed to write a guest blog! She is an amazing, incredibly strong lady! So in her own words, I give you Carmen Murphy....

                           

  

        My name is Carmen, I am 50 years old and I am a mother to my son who is 30 and a daughter who is 13.  I am also a grandmother to a beautiful grandson who is two years old.  Life has been good to me and I am very thankful for the life I have had so far.  Last February I found a lump in my right breast whilst having a shower, I wasn’t too concerned as the lump was quite large and was painful and thought it was probably nothing to worry about.  I mentioned it to my partner who felt the lump and he made me promise I would go to the doctors to get it checked out.  He wouldn’t leave it alone and insisted I go to the doctors as he had lost his mother to breast cancer.  I booked an appointment with my doctor and she checked my breast and sent me for a mammogram within a week.  As I said I was not too worried about it until I had the mammogram, it was weird as the right breast did not hurt when I had the mammogram but my left breast was very painful. I was sent straight in to see the consultant to hrave a more in depth scan and the consultant told me the lump in my right breast was a cyst so I was really relieved as he was going to drain it there and then, then he said he had found 3 more lumps in the left breast and under my left arm and he was going to take a biopsy straight away and I would get the results in a week. After the biopsy I was asked to wait in the waiting room.  I was then called into a room with two nurses who were lovely, one of the nurses asked me what I had been told and I said that I had a cyst in the right breast and just had a biopsy on the other lumps in my left breast and needed to wait for the results for a week.  The nurse said she needed to read what the consultant had put in my notes word for word, the next words out of her mouth, knock the wind out of me and I will never forgetit, she said “Highly likely CANCER”. I couldn’t speak straight away, I broke down as my daughter was only 12 years old and she was my first thought, was I going to survive this and be around to raise my daughter.  My Daughter still needed her mother and how would she cope without me.   After a few tears the nurses told me what may be in store for me depending on the results of the biopsy.  

              A week later I went back for the results and it was confirmed I had indeed got breast cancer and I had it in my lymph nodes and an MRI was booked in to see if they had missed any lumps.  The MRI scan confirmed there was another lump and I could have had another biopsy to confirm if it was cancerous.  I decided I did not want to wait for another biopsy and results so opted to have a mastectomy.  This was booked in within 4 weeks, I had the op and went back to work 2 weeks later.  I know I could have been signed off from work while I was going through all this but I couldn’t think of anything worse than sitting at home and having too much time to think about things so I spoke to my manager at work and told him I did not want to be signed off work and would they be willing to let me come into work and do what I can, when I could.  I have an amazing manager who spoke to his manager and they arrange for me to be able to come into work throughout my treatment of 6 months of chemo.  I would be fine the week of my chemo and able to go to work but struggled the second week and would take time off and then go back to work the third week. 

                

                                

       This continued throughout the chemo and I must say it kept my spirits up working.  The team of people I work with treated me the same as they had before my diagnosis, they have supported me through all of my treatment and I can honestly say what a wonderful team they are, they are friends as well as my colleagues.   I have now finished my chemo but I am still having trial drugs which will continue for the next 9 months. I am also very lucky to have a very large family, who’s support has been second to none.  Life doesn’t end when you are told you have cancer, life goes on and I truly believe having a positive attitude helps you cope with it, I even applied for a new job and just heard today I was successful and start a new job within the same company on the 22nd February so things are definitely looking good and I am very positive about the future.

      Before & After Chemo...

 Carmen (& her gorgeous Grandson) now...