When I felt a lump, I instantly thought of Karen. I thought of her all through treatment. I think of her every day
MODEL PAYS TRIBUTE TO SISTER WHO DIED FROM DISEASE
When Diane Wallace was diagnosed with breast cancer 16 years after losing her sister to the disease, she was sure history was about to tragically repeat itself.
Diane’s eldest sister Karen was a proud mum to a three-year- old son when she first found a lump in her breast. Diane also had two young sons when she discovered a lump.
The 42-year-old, of Dalkeith, Midlothian, admits that in the days following her diagnosis she was terrified her two boys – Aiden, three, and Abi, one – were about to lose their mum, just as her nephew Rhys had.
But all that changed when she visited her breast cancer consultant at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital.
Instead of feeling afraid that she was dying, she left the hospital feeling positive that she would overcome the disease.
And she wants to encourage anyone else diagnosed with a serious illness not to allow themselves to be overwhelmed by fear.
Diane said: “My sister died when she was 30 and I was 26. When I found the lump in my breast, I instantly thought of Karen.
“Once the diagnosis came, I thought, ‘I’m going to die as well’ – I really did think I wouldn’t be around to see my kids grow up. But on that first trip to meet my breast cancer consultant, he changed my outlook completely.
“He filled me with so much positivity about all the advances there have been in breast cancer treatment since my sister was ill and the advances that continue to be made.
“I left the hospital feeling so confident – the fear was gone – and I believe that positivity really helped me deal with the treatment I needed and get better.”
Diane, a painter and decorator, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2014, just days before her 41st birthday.
For more than a decade following her sister’s death, she had attended hospital for annual breast checks but she had missed a check-up when pregnant with her first child and failed to reactivate the annual tests again.
Diane said: “No one had been diagnosed with breast cancer in our family before Karen was ill but my other two sisters and I were told we should get a mammogram every year.
“She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 and after a year of treatment, she was told everything was fine but she started to get terrible back pain.
“She lived in Wales with her family but in September the following year she came up to Scotland for our mum’s 50th birthday and I remember her back was so sore she kept needing to lean against the wall for support.
“When she returned home to Wales, she went to the doctor and tests showed her breast cancer had spread.
“I went with my mum and dad to Wales to see her and when we went into the hospital, I got such a shock at how she looked I had to run out.
“In the month since we had seen her at my mum’s birthday, she had deteriorated so much – it was devastating.
“She died at the end of October. Her son Rhys was only four.”
Diane and her sisters were never offered genetics tests to see if they carried an increased risk of getting breast cancer but they were offered annual checks for the disease.
She said: “I must have had the checks for 11 years but when my appointment came through and I was pregnant with Aiden, I didn’t go and forgot to cancel too.
“I should have got in touch to start the checks again but I never did.
“When I look back now, I’m mad at myself for not going back but at the time I was pregnant, then I had a new baby, then I had another baby and I just put it to the back of my mind.
“I don’t know what difference it might have made if my breast cancer had been found earlier. Perhaps I wouldn’t have needed all the treatment I received but I can’t change what has happened.
“All I can do is encourage other people not to do the same as me.”
Diane underwent six months of gruelling chemotherapy in an attempt to kill off the cancer cells in her body.
After tests revealed she carried a BRCA gene that meant she had increased risk of the disease returning, she also underwent a double mastectomy with reconstruction surgery.
Almost two years on from her diagnosis, she is cancer free and feels fit and well.
She enjoys living life to the full and has just watched her eldest son start school.
Diane, who lives with partner Liam, 32, said: “I can’t thank my family and f riends enough for the support I received.
“It was particularly hard for my mum to watch another of her daughters go through breast cancer but she was a great help. I thought of my sisterr a lot when I was going through treatment and realised that, living so far away, I had been oblivious to a lot of what she must have gone through.
“Every time we saw her she was her usual, bubbly self but I know now how hard it must have been.”
Diane wants to do all she can to help raise awareness of breast cancer and, in particular, the importance for anyone with a history of the disease in their family to attend screening.
Later this month, she will appear as a model in the Breast Cancer Care Scotland Fashion Show and admits that she will think of her sister Karen as she dances down the catwalk.
She said: “It has been more than 17 years since we lost Karen but we still think about her allal the time.
“I thinkth she would be quite entertained by theth idea of me being a model.”
Every time we saw her she was bubbly but I know now just how hard it must have been