Jane Flemming ‘THE BATTLE I HAVE TO WIN'
A routineti visitiit tto ththe doctor turned into a nightmare for the courageous Olympian
Jane Flemming is renowned as one of our toughest ever athletes but her voice starts to crack and the tears flow when she reveals the torture she went through after a shock breast cancer diagnosis left her fighting for her life.
“Of course I was thinking the worst,” she admits. “I don’t know if I ever thought I was going to die, but I just thought the whole association of cancer... I don’t know what I was
thinking.thinking It was changing from one minute to another. I had a couple of horrendous meltdowns at night in the dark lying there thinking. I’ve never felt so afraid or vulnerable.”
Jane, 52, is still reeling after discovering almost by accident in May that she had a high-grade ductal carcinoma in her left breast, with surgeons eventually removing a 5cm tumour from her milk duct before a second operation to remove more cancer cells.
Her ordeal began earlier this year when she went to see her GP for a regular pap smear and complained about menopausal hot flushes keeping her awake at night. She was prescribed a low dose of estrogen and sent for a mammogram before starting it.
“They found three very, very tiny, almost microscopic pieces of white on the mammogram,” she says, explaining doctors told her it could be calcium deposits. It could also be an indication of breast cancer, but Jane says it never entered her mind she could actually have the disease given she had not one symptom or indicator.
OnmondayOn Monday, May 15 15, she had a biopsy and the specialist rang soon after to confirm the worst possible news – the results were positive for a form of breast cancer called DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ).
“I didn’t cry – not then,” she says, adding that she also kept a check on her emotions when she rang her husband Ian Purchas, who was in Brisbane. “I walked home to clear my head and rang a very good friend and then I burst into tears.”
IN A STATE OF SHOCK
The two-time Olympian refused to give in to self-pity or succumb to her worst fears, instead getting her nine-year-old twins, James and Samuel, prepared for school the next day when she would be rushed into surgery.
“I’m sure I was in a state of shock,” she says. “Ian got home later that night and it was fairly emotional but we were very much trying to keep our boys’ lives unaffected at this point and we really hadn’t told them much other than I had some calcium cells in my breast that had to come out.”
The following day she was at the North Shore Private Hospital in Sydney for exploratory surgery. “The next two-and-a-half weeks while we waited for results were the worst weeks of my life – at that stage it was confirmed as breast cancer but I didn’t know if it had invaded, how big it was, how bad it was or what the situation was,” she says.
Jane was in a lot of pain and couldn’t even let her boys hug her because of the surgery but tried to stay positive and keep life as normal for the family as was possible. It didn’t, however, stop her crying during the night when Jimmy and Sammy were asleep.
The news, when it came, wasn’t good. A 5cm long mass was found in her left breast. Normally a surgeon would take one margin from each side of the cancer to make sure the surrounding breast tissue is clear but Jane’s surgeon took two from each side to be sure.
The closest margins were both positive and one of the second margins was also positive. “I was just shocked to hear the size of it let alone that it was more extensive than what they initially thought,” she says.
Jane’s options were a mastectomy, a course of radiation, or hormonal treatment to eradicate all her female hormones, but she decided to have both breasts removed. “Some women are really attached to their breasts. I’m not
‘I was shocked to hear the size of it let alone it was more extensive than they thought’
and never have been, probably because they were so small and I had children already,” she says. “My overriding reasoning behind the decision was that it would give me the greatest chance of it never coming back… and I felt I needed to sleep at night without the fear of cancer hanging over my head.”
On June 30, Jane spent five hours in the operating theatre having a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction at the same time, and after six days in hospital her surgeon told her it was a success.
MORE BAD NEWS
Just 13 days later, however, her life was once again tipped upside down when her surgeon rang to tell her that after consulting other experts, they felt they need to operate again to “try and scrape every cell off the back of my skin”.
“That really sent me over the edge. I thought this is it, I’m finished,” Jane says. “Yes, I broke down in tears. I’m tearing up now talking to you about it because it’s just so traumatic.”
On July 31 she was finally given the all clear, after four operations and 10 weeks of absolute terrifying hell for Jane and Ian who, on the advice of a counsellor, eventually told the twins their mum had breast cancer.
“It was just such an overwhelming relief but I’m still reeling from the whole process and it’s taken a while for me to adapt to it. I do feel like I’ve got my life back again.
“It’s all been so bizarre. I was perfectly healthy during the Easter school holidays and by the time the next school holidays started I was in hospital having a double mastectomy. It’s been absolute torture for three months.”
Jane, who has been an ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation for almost 20 years, wanted to tell her story even though she’s kept her condition secret, to urge women to get regular mammograms.
“If I’d left it even for three more months this wouldn’t have been a good story. My whole message and the reason I’m talking to you today is to go and get a mammogram. I had no symptoms, no lump, no sign, no indication whatsoever – and I got breast cancer.”
‘I tear up talking about it because it’s so traumatic’