Routine screening saved my life, says breast cancer survivor Katy
A TAYNUILT woman whose life was saved by breast screening is urging women not to ignore routine appointments.
Kathy Murgatroyd was shocked when a routine appointment three years ago uncovered cancer. The former outdoors instructor, who is now in remission but still has yearly check-ups, had no signs anything was wrong and had always taken up routine screening invitations when the mobile breast unit came to Oban in 2015.
‘I just went along as usual. I had no signs whatsoever but when the results letter came back three weeks later it was a fat letter and I thought that doesn’t look like good news - it wasn’t.
‘I saw several consultants who pushed and prodded but couldn’t find a lump but something was there on the mammogram and the ultrasound. It turned out to be pre-cancerous cells,’ she said.
Within weeks those cells had turned to cancer. To add to her primary breast cancer diagnosis, other tests also showed there were cancer cells in her lymph nodes.
‘Things went extremely quickly from then on. I was lucky they got it so early. I can’t praise the treatment I got highly enough.
‘My message to women called for screening is that you must go. It saves lives – it saved my life,’ she added.
Treatment began with chemotherapy at Oban’s Lorn and Island Hospital’s day-bed unit, followed by surgery to remove the cancer and re-model her breast before she started radiotherapy. She was also started on Herceptin injections. ‘At that time, the nurses at Oban weren’t qualified to give it to me so they went and got themselves trained so they could do it. Now they’re able to give it to others. Isn’t that wonderful?
‘In between my diagnosis and the chemotherapy starting, I was searching for a support group and coming up with nothing in Oban so I rang up the Macmillan day bed unit and went to see them. They were so good with me. There’s more support available in the town for people now. The library hosts a Wednesday afternoon drop-in session run by Macmillan volunteers and the Dove Centre in Stevenson Street is there to help anyone with chronic illness and their families, not just terminal illnesses. Help is out there and people have to take it,’ said Ms Murgatroyd, who has since beaten a second cancer - cancer of the womb, diagnosed in January 2016.
‘If anything is wrong, don’t put off going to the doctors,’ said Ms Murgtroyd, who is back at her Lorn and Oban Healthy Options exercise class in the village, enjoying horse riding and is a regular at Ballet West’s weekly adult class.
Breast cancer screening saves 130 lives every year in Scotland and it only takes 10 minutes.
Women between the ages of 50 and 70 who have GPs are automatically invited to go along every three years.
A mobile unit staffed by an all-women team will be at Lorn and Islands Hospital car park in Oban from Tuesday April 3 to Thursday June 14, at Mull and Iona Community Hospital from Monday April 16 to Thursday May 3, at Campbeltown Hospital from Friday May 4 to Tuesday June 12, The New Surgery at Inveraray from Wednesday June 13 to Thursday June 21, Islay Hospital from Friday June 15 to Friday June 29, Tiree Dental Surgery car park in Bowmore from Monday June 25 to Friday June 29, Tarbert Medical Practice in Campbeltown Road from Monday July 2 to Tuesday July 10 and Mid Argyll Community Hospital in Lochgilphead from Wednesday July 11 to Friday August 10.