HOW BRAVE WOMEN DEFEATED DISEASE
Jane Reeson, 54, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2017. The delivery driver, from Wrangle, said: ‘I went for my routine mammogram. I was recalled and told I had cancer. I had a mastectomy on my left side with immediate reconstruction. Amazingly, I couldn’t feel a lump at all so if it hadn’t been for my mammogram it could have been a different story.’
Shirley Limb, 72, a former health and safety officer, of Kirton, was diagnosed in 2008. She had a lumpectomy and lymph nodes removed followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She said: ‘We’ve always been a close family but I do believe breast cancer has brought us closer together.’
3 Margaret Bedford, 74, a retired line manager for a food firm, from Wrangle, was diagnosed in August 2017. She said: ‘I had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy for four weeks. I sailed through it with no after-effects and so far everything is fine so I’m carrying on my life.’
Mary Limb, 74, a former pet food worker, from Haltoft End, was diagnosed in 2012. She said: ‘I was told I had breast cancer after doctors found a lump when I had a mammogram. I was in hospital for four days after an operation to remove the lump and lymph
5 Lorraine Hill, 61, suffered a cruel blow when her husband Andrew, 56, died of bowel cancer weeks after she finished chemotherapy. She was diagnosed in 2005. The former nurse lives in Horncastle with her new partner Paul Limb, 57. She said: ‘I didn’t tell Paul at first about my cancer battle. But being part of a family which has gone through cancer so many times has really helped me talk about it.’
6 Joyce Waite, 78, a former cleaner, of Boston, was diagnosed in December 2002. She said: ‘I discovered a lump on my breast and got it checked out. Within days I was booked in for surgery. I underwent an operation to remove the tumour. I’ve been clear ever since.’
7 Hazel Holland, 53, a primary school worker, from Butterwick, said: ‘I went to my first mammogram and I was mardy as I had just turned 49 and was thinking I had another year to go. It was a good job I was called early because after a recall for another test I was told I had breast cancer. I took it all in my stride and just got on with life.’
Barbara Limb, 81, was diagnosed in 2003 after going to her GP with breast pain. The retired care home manager, from Coningsby, said: ‘I had lymph nodes removed and a lumpectomy. Radiotherapy still burns me all these years later. But I’m a survivor.’
9 Vanessa Haw, 55, of Coningsby, was diagnosed in April 2015. She had a left-sided mastectomy and had all lymph nodes removed from her left arm. She later underwent a right mastectomy in as a precaution.
10 Trudie Smart, 47, was diagnosed in April 2008. The teaching assistant from Boston said: ‘I had chemotherapy before a mastectomy.’ She later opted to have her ovaries removed.