Doctor who found she had cancer two weeks af ter dream wedding
IT should have been the happiest few weeks of her life.
But newlywed Deborah Kinnear went from the high of a perfect wedding day to the fight of her life after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
She and her husband Neale, both psychologists, enjoyed a ‘perfect’ church wedding followed by a few days of honeymoon in North Berwick, East Lothian, while planning for a trip to New Zealand.
But two weeks later Dr Kinnear, then aged 30, discovered a lump in her breast and was given a cancer diagnosis.
All plans newlyweds take for granted were replaced by hospital visits then treatment to try to beat the disease.
Now, almost six years later, Dr Kinnear, from Balfron, Stirlingshire, is cancer-free and has helped raise more than £15,000 for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life.
She said: ‘The day I was told I had cancer I remember asking the doctor, “Am I going to die?”. He answered, “You might”, which wasn’t exactly the answer I had been expecting. It was a frightening time.
‘Mum dropped everything and drove with dad to be with me. A hug from mum and dad in those days meant the world.
‘Having cancer has made me appreciate how fragile life is, how your health and happiness can be snatched away in an instant.’
Dr Kinnear, now 36, recalls the joy of her wedding day in September 2012 witnessed by 200 guests at a church in North Berwick.
She had been visiting the gym four times a week to get ready so had not given much thought to feeling tired during wedding preparations.
‘The sun shone on our wedding day and it was just perfect in every single way,’ she said. ‘Neale and I were fixing up a month-long trip to New Zealand later that year so stayed in North Berwick for a few honeymoon days.
‘We had been living in England but wanted to come home to live in Scotland permanently. It was the start of our married life.
‘Cancer was the last thing on our minds but our promise to look after each other in sickness and in health were to be tested to the max.’
But two weeks after the wedding she discovered a lump in her left breast. She had surgery then chemotherapy which caused hair loss.
Dr Kinnear said: ‘When I was little I had nightmares about my hair falling out, so it was a big issue.
‘There was nothing to do but just to embrace it, to accept my hair was gone but that it would grow back.
‘Neale became my carer in those months. He gets a gold medal for everything he did.’
She and her 37-year-old husband finally embarked on their month-long trip to New Zealand in October 2013 and relocated to Scotland in December of that year.
Dr Kinnear recently reached the milestone of being cancer free for five years. She said: ‘As soon as you have a treatment plan, there’s nothing you can’t handle.’
She is now planning to take part in the next Race for Life 5K at Glasgow Green on May 20 with her mother Margaret Cairns, 63, and her sister, 38year-old Nicola McKay.