‘Self-examination was not enough, luckily the mammogram caught it’
CATHERINE MEESON always used to check her breasts for any signs of change.
She felt quietly confident that she did not need to attend the routine breast screening invitation, which came through the post. The 61-year-old says she had reluctantly attended the mammogram four years ago, as she thought she was too busy to take time off work.
“That mammogram probably saved my life. I always selfexamined and felt quite confident that I couldn’t feel any lumps or changes, so assumed I was clear,” she said.
“I still cringe when I think about how I postponed it for a month, because I’d just started a new job.”
Mrs Meeson, who lives in Hyde Park, Leeds, was called back for another examination and then diagnosed with invasive HER2positive breast cancer from the routine mammogram in October 2014.
She went on to have a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, then a course of Herceptin. She later had a breast reduction to even up the lumpectomy and now says she is delighted with the result.
“The diagnosis was a shock. I had no idea there was anything wrong as I felt fine. Selfexamination was simply not enough. The doctors said it was the mammogram that caught it in time.”
Now she urges anyone who receives an invitation to attend without hesitation.
She said: “My husband Tommy has been a rock and showered me with love and support and I don’t think I could have got through this without him; but this journey and the sheer worry it has brought with it, seems to have aged him.”
Mrs Meeson, who previously worked in human resources, has three daughters, a son and nine grandchildren, says the whole family has been touched in some way by the diagnosis.
“I will be eternally grateful to all of the fantastic NHS staff who’ve been involved in my treatment so far, and to Cancer Research UK, for giving me hope for the future.”
She is now a volunteer at Equine Pathways in Gildersome, a charity which provides free equine assisted therapy using the healing power of horses, for adults and children suffering with disabilities, additional needs and mental illness.
“I really love what I do, but if I know if I had not been for that mammogram, it could have been so different.”