MY MESSAGE IS NEVER GIVE UP HOPE
Annarita Grande from Rotherham shares her extraordinar y stor y ahead of Lung Cancer Awareness Month this November
Helping her daughter settle into student accommodation ahead of her first term at university was a day Annarita never thought she would see.
Eight years previously, Annarita was a fit and healthy 40-year-old mum. She had
11- year-old twins Gabriele and Alyssia, ran a busy coffee shop, and went to the gym three times a week. She had a healthy diet, never smoked and loved running.
Then one day, she went out for a run and found herself short of breath. “I’d only been running for two minutes, I felt quite ashamed,” she says. “I had this dry cough and tickle in my throat. I thought, why am I coughing all the time?”
A week later, Annarita went on a family holiday to visit her parents in Italy and on the beach she was coughing again.
“I thought it was the air con in the hotel at first, then I remembered I’d had it for three weeks,” she says.
When they got back, she saw the doctor, who thought it was asthma and prescribed medication, but her cough didn’t go away. Then a few weeks later, Annarita developed a pain in her left shoulder. Although she didn’t realise at the time, the two symptoms were linked.
“I thought I’d pulled a muscle at the gym,” she says. “It was excruciating, so I went back to the doctors. I told him I still had the cough, but he told me not to worry.”
In January 2013, after Annarita insisted on an X-ray, they realised something was seriously wrong.
The X-ray revealed a shadow on her lung and Annarita was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. The cancer had already spread to her bones, which was the reason for the pain in her shoulder. She had only just turned 40 and was told she had two years to live.
“I went cold,” she says. “I was in shock. I thought, that’s it. My life is over. I thought about my kids and not being able to see them grow up
“I’ve been lucky enough to see my children grow up – that fills my heart”
and the things I’d miss, like getting their driving licence, going to uni, getting married. I couldn’t bear the thought of them not having their mum.”
Annarita started treatment straight away.
Her husband, Gio, sold his business and took over the running of the café and they tried to protect the children from the truth as they were too young to understand.
“They could see I looked different. I was bloated, I had headaches and felt sick,” she says. “I tried to act normal and not let them see me cry. The only lucky thing was I didn’t lose my hair.
“It’s a dark place when you have been told you’re going to die, you can’t focus on anything else. I thought about death a lot, and it was really hard.
“Then one day my son said, ‘You’re going to die then, Mum’. That broke my heart. He’d heard people talking at school and at that point, I realised he had always kind of known, he just didn’t want to talk about it.
“There was no point keeping secrets. It was important for the children to know. So I assured them they would never be alone and I would always be with them, no matter what.”
With the support of family, friends, her oncologist and incredible nurses, Josie and Susan, Annarita took it day by day and spent a lot of time on the phone with her sister, Tina and friend, Chiara, who live in Italy. “Chiara rang me every day to make sure I was OK and if I wasn’t, she would try and cheer me up,” she says. “If it weren’t for my family and people like that I don’t know where I’d be.”
As the months went on, Annarita’s condition began to stabilise. It was two years since her diagnosis and for the first time they had a ray of hope.
Then suddenly, Annarita began to experience headaches. The pain was so excruciating, she couldn’t even speak. Her husband rushed her to Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield where a scan the following morning revealed the cancer had spread to her brain.
“That’s when I started to feel scared,” says Annarita. “I thought I was going to die. Then I got information. I started reading people’s stories and I found out about stereotactic surgery, a non-surgical radiation therapy used to treat small tumours of the brain.”
Initially, she was told it wasn’t an option. Then Annarita was thrown a lifeline and told she could begin the treatment immediately. Tests had indicated she had three brain metastases or secondary tumours – but when she was under the machine, they discovered 60. Annarita was eventually treated for over 150 brain mets. Yet amazingly, eight years on, she is leading an almost normal life.
Although she is still on medication and can’t exercise like she used to, she can go for walks, go to the beach, cook meals and garden.
“I can see my family and talk with my friends, what more do I need?” she says.
“My husband, Gio, has been absolutely brilliant. I’d be lost without him.”
The twins are now 19, her son has started an apprenticeship, and her daughter is in her first term at university. “I never imagined I’d have so much joy after an awful diagnosis like lung cancer,” she says. “I’ve seen my children grow up and that fills my heart. I know not everyone is lucky like me, but I am certain researchers will find a cure one day. My message is never give up hope.”