Daughter’s moving letters made mother determined to defeat her breast cancer
WHEN Louisa Trunks was battling breast cancer, there was one thing that helped her conquer it.
Every night, devoted daughter Amelie, eight, would put a note on her pillow saying how much she loved her.
The letters gave her the strength to fight through the gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and operations to remove the cancer.
Now she has been told she is cancer free and credits her daughter’s heartfelt letters.
Amelie spurred her on with heartwarming notes that read “Mummy you are beautiful” and “I love you more than chocolate”.
Louisa, 41, who lives in Cheltenham with Amelie, husband Lee, 43, and son Hugo, 11, says: “To find a letter each night on my pillow really gave me a boost. I knew I had to get better for my children. They are depending on me as their mum.
“Amelie’s letters really got me through the treatment and helped me keep fighting.”
Louisa was diagnosed last September with an aggressive form of breast cancer that affects younger women.
Lee first felt the lump when he held her close for a hug.
“We had no idea it was even there before that cuddle,” says Louisa. “Lee noticed it and asked me what it was, but I’d never felt it before.
“It was big, about 5cm in diameter, in my left breast. So I went to the GP straight away, who at first told me to come back in two weeks time to see if it had gone down.”
Louisa was referred to the local breast centre for a mammogram and biopsy.
“When the radiographer was doing the ultrasound, she said straight away that it looked like a cancerous lump,” says Louisa. “I was in shock. I went to fall on to the floor and they caught me.”
Tests confirmed breast cancer and also that it had spread to her
lymph nodes, so she needed immediate treatment. “I knew enough about it to know that it wasn’t good news that it was in my lymph nodes,” she says. “I looked at my children and was frightened that I would be dead within a year, leaving them without a mum.”
More tests showed that it hadn’t spread further than her lymph nodes and Louisa started a fourmonth course of aggressive chemotherapy treatment straight away.
“All I focused on was that I wanted to live,” she said. “I wanted to still be here for Lee and the children. The children knew that I was poorly, and when Amelie started putting her lovely letters on my pillow, I knew that I needed to fight even harder.
“They brought such a smile to my face every night. They said such lovely things like, ‘Mummy you are beautiful’ and ‘I love you more than chocolate’.
“I lost all my hair throughout the treatment, which both Amelie and Hugo found very traumatic. They helped me shave my hair off, so that it didn’t frighten them when it started dropping out.” Louisa was supported by Maggie’s cancer charity and Breast Cancer Now, both which help young breast cancer victims.
She had an operation at the end of February followed by radiotherapy, and now surgeons have said she is all clear from cancer.
“I don’t smoke, I eat healthily and exercise,” said Louisa. “I was just unlucky – but thankful Lee gave me a cuddle when he did.
“I’m on hormone tablets for 10 years but I feel lucky to be here, and be a mum to my children.”