10 relatives credit their close bond as they all beat breast cancer in 15yr battle

81-year-old, a retired care home worker who has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, was the second woman in the family to get the shock news after going to her GP in July 2003 suffering with breast pain.

She said: “I had my op on the August 19, 2003, and had lymph nodes removed and a lumpectomy.

“This was followed by a full course of radiotherapy, which still burns me all these years later. But I’m a survivor.”

Barbara’s niece Trudie Smart, 47, was diagnosed in April 2008. The teaching assistant, from Boston, had eight cycles of chemo before a mastectomy in November that year, followed by three weeks of radiotherapy.

She said: “My breast cancer was ER+, which meant I produced too much oestrogen, so I opted to have my ovaries removed.”

The next relative diagnosed was her mum Shirley Limb, of Kirton, in September 2008. The 72-year-old, who has six grandchildren and two greatgrandkids, got the news after a routine mammogram. An ultrasound and biopsy confirmed breast cancer and she had a lumpectomy and her lymph nodes removed just before Christmas.

She then had radiotherapy every day for three weeks and was told she was in remission in summer 2009.

Vanessa’s brother’s partner Lorraine Hill, 61, was diagnosed after finding a large lump in her breast in 2005.

The barmaid and mum-of-one, from Horncastle, had chemo to shrink the tumour before a partial mastectomy. And sister-in-law Hazel Holland, 53, was struck down in February 2015.

The mum of two, a breakfast club supervisor, had a lump and lymph nodes removed, then chemo and radiotherapy. She said: “I just took it all in my stride and got on with life.”

Three years earlier, in 2012, Hazel’s mum Mary Limb, 74, was told she had breast cancer after doctors found a lump. She was in hospital four days after her operation to remove the lump and her lymph nodes, before radiotherapy. Two years later, in August 2017, Mary’s sister-in-law Margaret Bedford, 74, was diagnosed.

The mum-of-three had a lumpectomy the next month and, following four weeks of gruelling radiotherapy, was declared cancer-free.

Then a month later, in October 2017, son David’s partner Jane Reeson, 54, got her diagnosis. The mum of two, a delivery driver, had a mastectomy on her left side that November.

She has been told to take oestrogen blocker Tamoxifen for five years and so far all tests have come back clear.

She said: “I couldn’t feel a lump, so if it hadn’t been for the mammogram it could have been a different story.

“Knowing what the family had gone through meant I was conscious of the importance of getting check-ups.”

The family’s calendar is out next month with all proceeds going to the charity Breast Cancer Care.