I survived loneliest lockdown Loneliest lockdown
Battling breast cancer and cut off from her family for 14 weeks, brave Samantha carries on with college work and wins student of the year
AN INSPIRATIONAL mum spent lockdown completely alone as she battled breast cancer but she still managed to pass her exams – and has been named Student of the Year.
Samantha Currie, 37, even found time to cut off her own long hair, before undergoing chemotherapy, which she donated to the Little Princess Trust to make wigs for child cancer patients.
The remarkable mum of two spent 14 weeks apart from her beloved sons Max, five, and Robbie, 10, which was a painful separation.
And while they have been reunited now that her chemotherapy is over, she has still not been able to get a much-needed hug from her own mum and dad.
Samantha from Stevenston, Ayrshire, discovered a lump in February.
She managed to see her GP the next day and was referred to hospital for a mammogram and scan. By March 6, she learned she had HER2 positive breast cancer.
Samantha said: “They were very quick in dealing with it.
“I was supposed to have chemotherapy first to shrink the tumour but they saw how quickly the cases of Covid were rising and they got me in for a lumpectomy on March 23.”
The cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes and was at stage two but, because she had found the lump early, it could be removed before she began her chemotherapy. Between her operation at Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, and starting chemotherapy, she had her sons home with her but then she had to send them off to their dad’s until her treatment was over.
But selfless Samantha still had time to think of others and decided to chop off her hair for children with cancer.
She said: “I had hair down to my bum but they advised me at the hospital to cut it short so it was not as traumatic when I saw it on the pillow.
“I got my sister to tie it into a pony tail and I cut it and sent it away to the Little Princess Trust.
“Then my sister shaved my hair in at the back.”
Both Samantha’s maternal gran and her own mum Jacqueline, 62, had breast cancer but were much older when they were diagnosed.
And while doctors do not believe it is genetic, both her sisters Lorraine, 41, and Ashley, 35, will be offered mamograms when cancer services are fully operational again.
Samantha said: “When I found the lump, everybody said it would just be a cyst but I knew deep down what it was so I had more or less
prepared myself for the diagnosis. But when the consultant told me my heart sunk to my stomach.
“And I didn’t know how to tell my kids. They were with their dad for 14 weeks. I saw them through video but it just wasn’t the same. I wasn’t able to hug them and give them kisses.
“Not having physical contact when I was going through cancer treatment was hard.
“Lockdown was the loneliest time of my life and because I couldn’t see anyone no-one really knew what I was going through.
“I just continued with my college work at home while I was going through chemotherapy. I didn’t want to give up my course.”
Samantha didn’t just pass her administration with medical course, she got an A and was awarded Ayrshire College’s Student of the Year title.
She said: “I was completely surprised. I didn’t even know they had one.”
Her proud mum Jacqueline added: “It was tough going for her. We saw her mental health going down but she always managed to lift herself up for the sake of her boys.
“We were so proud when she was made student of the year. It was great to see her hard work recognised.”